The Signature Box

Four Fat Fowl sources the milk for St. Stephen from Dutch Hollow Farms in nearby Schodack, NY. This decadent, hand-crafted triple crème has a soft, creamy texture and a rich mouthfeel. The flavors are butter, hay, and fresh cream, while the edible rind contributes earthy, mushroomy notes. We love St. Stephen with a glass of sparkling wine.

The name Four Fat Fowl is a nod to an early colonial landholding system imposed by Dutch settlers. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch colonized the Hudson Valley and established a patroonship system. The patroon acted as the landlord to tenants who rented land to live on and farm. Stephentown was named after Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last patroon of the patroonship that now comprises Rensselaer County. His tenants called him the “Good Patroon” because he was lenient in collecting rent, which included a day’s labor, ten to twenty bushels of wheat per hundred acres, and “four fat fowl.”

Farm/Producer/Importer: Four Fat Fowl
Place: Stephentown, NY
Style: Bloomy, Triple Creme
Milk Type: Cow
Rennet: Traditional
Age: 4-6 Weeks
Pairing: Champagne, Wheat beer

Ossau Iraty is a delicious sheep's milk cheese produced in the French Pyrenées. The name comes from the production area, which includes two neighboring provinces: the Ossau Valley, located in the Bearn, and Iraty, a forested area in the French Basque Pyrenées. Milk for production comes from the local breeds of sheep, the Manech and Basco-Bearnaise. The texture of Ossau Iraty is smooth, dense, and supple. Ossau Iraty is sweet and nutty, with grassy, floral, and savory vegetal notes.

Farm/Producer/Importer: Onetick
Place: Pyrenées, France
Style: Firm
Milk Type: Raw sheep
Rennet: Traditional
Age: 5-6 months
Pairing: Red Bordeaux, Lambic Ale, hard cider

Handcrafted from raw milk on the Penterman farm in Wisconsin, Marieke Gouda is everything we love about the American artisan cheese scene: raw milk, farmstead, and made by people! This Gouda is smooth and sweet, with a hint of caramel perfectly balanced by its lactic tang.

Farm/Producer/Importer: Marieke Gouda
Place: WI, USA
Style: Firm
Milk Type: Cow
Rennet: Traditional
Age: 9-12 months
Pairing: Off-dry Riesling, White Ale

This cherry spread is deeply fruity and complex with a tart and sweet flavor. It is the ideal cheese pairing.

Made by a mother-and-son team, Peter Potter Weber and Nancy Potter, in Madison, WI, the bakery's stated mission is to "sustainably produce organic crackers of the highest quality." They are 100% certified organic and use ingredients local to the bakery: milk, butter, and Wisconsin-milled whole wheat.