Canadian cheese has just the right tang

By ANNE GILLESPIE LEWIS, Special to the Star Tribune

Last update: August 26, 2009 - 12:53 PM

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When we spend a few days visiting our friends Lou and Inger Pignolet in Hovland, Minn., after a long and lingering drive up the North Shore, we often go a bit farther, crossing the border into Ontario and turning down a country road to Thunder Oak Cheese Farm, which is a small pocket of Holland in Canada. The farm was started by Jacob and Margaret Schep, who emigrated to Canada from the Netherlands, and it specializes in producing Gouda cheese. A second generation of Scheps is now involved in the business.

Their own Holstein herd supplies the milk for the cheese, which is made several days a week. Visitors can watch the cheesemaking from behind a windowed wall. Finished rounds of cheese are stacked in an adjacent room to cure. And it's not just plain Gouda they make -- there are eight flavors, including aged Gouda, dill Gouda, tomato and basil Gouda, and my own favorite, nettle Gouda. The dried nettles -- yes, those stinging weeds that most people consider a real pest -- are imported from the Netherlands.

The nettle-dotted cheese has no sting to it, just a lovely tang. The farm is open Monday through Saturday. Check www.cheesefarm.ca for details. The shop also sells Dutch candies, cookies and other goodies. Thunder Bay is a bit farther north, and Historic Fort William and the remnants of the city's Finnish community -- including Hoito, a cafe serving Finnish specialties -- are well worth a visit.

Anne Gillespie Lewis is a Minneapolis writer.