Red Dragon Dairy – The Highlight of Big Cheese Days
Armed with a passport from Culinary Ontario, we set out to visit 4 dairy/cheesemakers participating in Big Cheese Days, which happens each Saturday during May. Our itinerary was shortened a bit by the storm, and one remained closed due to the power outage, but we managed to visit 3 dairies – MountainOak, Gun’s Hill Artisan Cheese and the best and my favourite, Red Dragon Dairy.
For me, all cheese is worth tasting and we purchased some at each place, having quite a variety by the end of the day – cheese with nettles or truffles, cheese made with chocolate beer from a local brew pub, plain curds, curds flavoured with chili and with herbs, quark and yogurt, and local A2 white and chocolate milk.
It was a beautiful country drive, with very little traffic and the dairies were not busy – all in all, a leisurely afternoon.
Red Dragon Dairy was our final destination and it turned out to be the highlight of the day. It is a beautiful,
welcoming facility that opened 10 months ago. It offers not only their own housemade sheep cheese and breads, but they are also keen on helping and promoting other local products, including the maple syrup that I bought that was from “a mile up the road,” and the A2 milk from a neighbouring farm. (And this was possibly the best chocolate milk ever as it had a great chocolate flavour but did not taste too sweet.) And the buffalo milk for the mozzarella was purchased also from a neighbour.
On arrival, we were treated to small portions of Welsh Rarebit made from imported Welsh cheese (true to its name and their roots) and their own homemade whole wheat bread. Then we sampled their own house cheese, including feta, manchego and curds 3 ways, plain, with chili and herbed.
In a nod to their roots, cheese from England, Wales and Ireland gets a space in their fridge, too.
Red Dragon Dairy is definitely worth a road trip and stock up until the next time you can go! And when you are there, chat with Mason and Ellis about their venture and their work, and get a bit inspired by what they do and their pride in it.
Directions:
My mouth is watering! I haven’t had Welsh Rarebit since I was last in Wales!
You always write about such interesting day trips. I’ve finished my 3-month
IN THE STUDIO MOMA POST-WAR ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS course. Packed
up my canvases (paintings like the 7 artists we studied) assignments and notes (2 huge notebooks). Will
finish the paintings I started earlier this year. Always love hearing about your liely life.
I’m sure you don’t miss SF. We’ve been locked down for 2 years, still wearing masks indoors.
I would be good to catch up with a conversation…do you still have the same tel# or a different one?
I’m the same…luv, Roberta