Mars Country Cottage

Milky Way Meadows' "Mars Country Cottage" is unlike any other sharp aged cheese you've tasted!

While many of the cheeses we feeature are styles that originated elsewhere, Pinconning-style cheeses, a.k.a. aged colby, originated in Pinconning, Michigan and is named accordingly.

By nature, colby cheese is cheddar's milder sister. In cheddar cheesemaking, the curds are pressed once they have finished draining, but colby curds are first rinsed with water, then drained and pressed. The curds are washed in order to remove some of the acid that results from the curdling of the milk - this makes colby cheese slightly less tangy and sharp.

Like many of the cheeses produced on the Townville, Pennsylvania farmstead of Milky Way Meadows, "Mars Country Cottage" is semi-hard, sometimes crumbly, yet surprising moist. "Mars Country Cottage" also tends to develop sharpness in its age. The Klipfer family of Milky Way Meadows ages most of their cheeses for about a year. (That's their cheese cellar in the photo below!)

"Mars Country Cottage" is also quite buttery. Just like its younger sister, traditional colby, Pinconning-style colby is a nice melter and can be used as a milder substitute for cheddar cheese in most recipes.