This cheese was made September 4, 2014 and cut November 3, 2014.

This cheese is made from simply pasteurized cow's milk
The milk used to make this cheese was not ultra-pasteurized as is most store bought milk.

Blue cheese is made buy adding cultures of the mold Penicillium to the milk used to make the cheese. As a result the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue-gray mould. Blue cheese has a distinct smell that comes from the specially cultivated bacteria.

Blue cheeses must be aged in a temperature-controlled environment such as a cave. Joan used her specially built cheese cave

Blue cheese can be eaten by itself or can be crumbled or melted into or over foods.

Blue cheese tastes sharp and salty. There is a distinctive smell due both the mould and the bacteria that are encouraged to grow on the cheese:

As you can see from the cheese maker's notes, that are reproduced below, no calcium chloride was used. The notes also indicate that an unusually large amount of butterfat came to the surface while stirring the curds.

There is an interesting legend about the origin of Blue cheese. The legend says that it was invented by accident when a drunken cheese maker who was eating his lunch in a moist cheese cave. This drunken cheese maker left behind a half-eaten cheese sandwich. When he returned, he discovered that the mold covering the bread had transformed the cheese into a blue cheese.