Looking Glass Creamery wins 2015 Good Food Award

Looking Glass Creamery of Fairview announced today that its Connemara goat cheese was chosen as a winner of the 2015 Good Food Awards. The Connemara was among 130 U.S. food and beverage products — and the only North Carolina cheese product — to be selected for the award this year.

Now in its fifth year, the Good Food Awards were created through a collaboration of food producers, farmers, food journalists and independent grocers organized by Seedling Projects. The team nominates judges from across the country to choose more than 100 winners from five regions of the country. This year’s winners were honored at a ceremony held in the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco on Thursday, Jan. 8. The winning foods were presented for sampling at the event.

Here is more on the award from Looking Glass Creamery:

Connemara, made by Looking Glass Creamery, LLC of Fairview, NC, has been selected as a 2015 Good Food Award winner.  The Good Food Awards organized by Seedling Projects are national in scope and aim to recognize responsible producers who craft exceptional products in various food categories including beer, cheese, charcuterie, preserves, spirits, chocolates and confections.  Looking Glass Creamery was the only North Carolina Cheese Producer recognized for the honor and was one of 130 winners nationwide.  In addition to meeting the criteria of responsible production, Connemara was also “a top scorer at the Blind Tasting amongst a pool of 1,462 entries”, according to Seedling Projects Director, Sarah Weiner. There were 140 notable judges hailing from all corners of the food world. 

The cheese was named in honor of Lilian “Paula” Sandburg a pioneer in the world of dairy goats and the wife of poet Carl Sandburg.  Their farmstead, named Connemara, in nearby Flat Rock, NC is now a National Historic Site. The recipe and process for Connemara was developed and refined in 2014.  “I knew right away when I tasted the first batch of Connemara that this was going to be a very special cheese,” says cheesemaker and co-owner Jennifer Perkins. 

Connemara, made from goat’s milk, is a firm, aged cheese that is salted in the vat before loading the curds into molds that are heavily pressed overnight before they are moved to the aging cave. The wheels are periodically turned as they age for two to three months. Connemara has a pure white paste and a creamy texture with real depth of flavor without an overpowering sense of the goat. The milk to produce the cheese comes from nearby Round Mountain Creamery which is the source for all the goat milk used in Looking Glass Creamery production.  “We are proud to work with two small, local and independent dairy farms in the area that provide us with some of the best cheesemaking milk available. It takes good milk to make good cheese.” Says co-owner and sales manager, Andy Perkins.    

Connemara is produced in small batches of 8 to 12 wheels at a time. It can be sampled and purchased at the cheese shop or ordered and shipped via the company’s website at www.ashevillecheese.com. Chef William Dissen features Connemara on the cheese plate at The Market Place Restaurant, a fixture of the Asheville Restaurant Scene since 1979. For Sales and Distribution of Connemara, contact Andy Perkins at 828-458-4715 or Andy@ashevillecheese.com .

Looking Glass Creamery is a small, family cheesemaking operation that opened its doors in January of 2009. They craft handmade cheese using traditional techniques from two local farms, one goat and one cow dairy. The company opened a cheese shop at the Creamery in 2013. Looking Glass Creamery has been recognized and featured by numerous publications and organizations including the American Cheese Society, Williams-Sonoma, Cooking Light, Traditional Home, NY Times, USA Today and many others.  The company is owned and operated by Jennifer and Andy Perkins.