Say Cheese: The Healthy Local Cheeses You Have To Try!

Goodness Me! loves cheese. One of the best things about it is the sheer variety - so many factors create a wide variety of flavours and textures, and this means there's something for everyone!

This variety means you'll also find delicious flavours in all corners of our great province. Local cheeses make up much of Goodness Me!'s cheese selection, and we try to stock up on ones with no fillers: you'll find awesome choices that are just milk and bacteria, and some made with unpasteurized milk!

Get to know some of the people making these amazing products in your own backyard. Here are three cheese companies doing great things with cow, goat, and sheep milk!

Organic Meadow

The name might give it away, but all of this Guelph dairy company's offerings are organic! Organic Meadow was formed almost 30 years ago by six organic farmers who wanted to make widely available milk and dairy products without any chemical additives. This means that, from feed to milking, no synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, growth hormones, or GMOs are used.

Organic Meadow's aged cheddar, mozzarella, and Swiss cheeses do not contain any artificial colours or flavours. They are also "animal rennet-free", meaning that none of the rennets, enzymes used in the cheese making process to separate curds and whey, are taken from the calves.

Woolwich Dairy

Ontario's goat cheese experts, this Orangeville dairy collects milk from more than 200 family goat farms to make their chevre (for the fancy among us, this is the French word for goat cheese! Use the word at your next dinner party.).

Goat cheese is great for those with lactose allergies and intolerances, because it naturally has much less lactose than cow's milk cheese. It also contains more protein and has fewer occurring sugars!

Best Baa Dairy

Sheep's cheese isn't the easiest to find, but Goodness Me! loves stocking this Fergus family sheep farm's products. Variety is the spice of life, especially on a great cheese platter.

Don't be hesitant about picking up Best Baa's sheep cheese - it's a rich, creamy, and comes full of amazing flavor. The names for their cheese are pretty baaaad, too: from the Ramembert (their soft Camembert) to the Eweda (you probably know it's their gouda), there's a great cheese for every taste!

You'll find so much cheesy goodness from all over Ontario - Pine River, Chanoki, Black River, and more! We also have a wide variety of organic and non-GMO cheeses from Ireland, France, even Australia. Explore new tastes by taking a walk through Goodness Me!'s cheese aisle!

Recipe: Smoky Bacon Cheddar Dip

This recipe is taken from the Winter 2015 of Nourish Magazine. Check out the latest issue in stores for more deliciously cheesy recipes!

1 cup cooked bacon (naturally-smoked) and crumbled

1 cup chevre (goat cheese)

1 ½ cups full-fat sour cream

1tbsp. organic garlic finely chopped.

½ cup organic green onion, finely chopped

½ tsp. Herbamere

Combine ingredients in food processor bowl. Process until smooth. Place in a one-quart baker and bake uncovered at 350F for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly. Serve hot with an assortment of rice crackers.