The Family of Soft-Ripened Cheeses
Soft-ripened cheeses are a broad and beloved family in the cheese world. These include famous names like Brie and Camembert, known for their creamy textures and white “bloomy” rinds. What makes them soft-ripened is the way they age: a thin layer of edible mold grows on the outside, ripening the cheese from the outside in. This moldy rind is usually snowy white, sometimes with a slight fuzz, and it’s completely intentional (and delicious!).
The molds responsible are typically Penicillium camemberti (often called P. candidum in cheesemaking) and sometimes a yeast-like fungus called Geotrichum candidum. One add these friendly molds to the milk or spray them on the young cheese. They form a bloom on the surface – that soft, velvety colorful (yes, it is not always white!) coat you see on Brie – and begin an amazing transformation. As the molds grow, they break down the curds beneath the rind, turning a firm young cheese into a soft and silky one over time. If you’ve ever cut into a wheel of Brie and noticed the gooey creaminess near the edges and a firmer center, that’s the outside-in ripening at work. The molds are literally digesting the cheese from the perimeter inward, creating the creamy texture and deepening the flavor.
Cheese Parfume
Flavor and aroma in this cheese family are often described as buttery, earthy, and mushroomy. The rind itself is usually mild: when properly ripenedrelatively it might smell lightly of mushrooms or damp hay, but it shouldn’t be overpowering. In fact, the rind is often quite neutral in taste (only if overripe can it get a bit pungent or ammonia-like). Inside, the cheese paste becomes soft, even runny, with a pale ivory color and a luscious mouthfeel. Classic Brie, for example, is known for a gentle milky flavor with notes of butter and fresh mushrooms. Camembe,rt, a close cousin, tends to develop a stronger, funkier aroma as it ages. Brie is typically the milder of the two, while Camembert can be more intense and barnyardy.
Yet both are members of the same bloomy-rind family – a testament to how size, recipe, and aging time can tweak the character. There are countless other soft-ripened cheeses across the world (from France’s triple-crèmes to America’s artisan Brie styles, even some goat and sheep versions), but they all share that colorful fuzzy rind and creamy core.
A Brie-Style Cheese of Our Own
At Secret Lands Farm, we fell in love with this style of cheese years ago. We wanted to create a bloomy-rind cheese that reflected our own milk and our values. Enter Tommette de Brebis. This is our very own Brie-style cheese made with 100% sheep’s milk. It’s a hand-crafted, farmstead cheese – meaning we make it right on our farm from our own flock’s milk. Tommette de Brebis (pronounced toh-MET duh bruh-BEE) translates roughly to “small wheel of sheep cheese” in a mix of French and local flair. The name nods to the French tradition (you’ll find many sheep cheeses called tomette de brebis in the Basque Pyrenees), but our recipe is truly a product of Secret Lands Farm.
A wheel of our Tommette de Brebis showing its bloomy, colorful rind and creamy interior. The wheel of this cheese is under 500 grams. The white, yellow, and sometimes even brown and orange mold on the surface develops during aging, protecting the paste inside and imparting subtle earthy flavors. Each Tommette is hand-crafted from our sheep’s milk and cared for in our aging room until perfectly ripe.
Complex Flavor
Tommette de Brebis might look like Brie at first glance, but once you taste it, you realize it’s something unique. For one, it’s made from sheep’s milk rather than cow’s milk. Sheep’s milk brings a richness and depth of flavor that you don’t get in a typical cow-milk Brie. We age these cheeses for weeks and even months to let complex flavors develop. In fact, we often make Tommette only from the richest autumn milk our ewes produce, and then we age it for a long time – far longer than a supermarket Brie. It’s not uncommon for our Tommette to mature for two months or more in our cave, which is considerable for a small cheese (many Brie-style cheeses ripen in 4–6 weeks). In some batches, we’ve even aged them up to six months, which concentrates the flavor remarkably.
The result is a semi-soft, bloomy-rind cheese unlike any other made in Canada. When fully ripe, Tommette de Brebis has a thin, ivory rind with a possible wisp of cream or orange tint (from natural molds) and a soft interior that can become almost fudgy or gooey. The taste is rich and layered. You’ll get a creamy, buttery start, then sheep milk’s characteristic sweetness and nuttiness, and finishing notes that are deep and earthy. Some batches lean almost mushroomy or grassy in aroma, while others have a slight tang or lanolin hint that reminds you it’s sheep’s milk.
Every Batch Miracle
We’ve had wheels that surprise us with a sharp, almost cheddar-like bite at the rind and others that are pure butter and hay. What remains constant is the indulgent texture and the way the flavor lingers on your palate – it really does “leave you wanting more for hours after eating it,” as some fans have told us. Tomette is potent for its size, but still approachable and not as strong as some larger, longer-aged cheeses.
We’re proud that our Tommette de Brebis showcases the quality of our milk and the craftsmanship of our small team. It’s our farm’s take on Brie, with a twist. By using sheep’s milk and traditional aging, we’ve created something that honors the Old-World cheesemaking we admire, yet is distinctly our own. In Canada, soft sheep cheeses are quite rare, so we love that Tommette de Brebie is introducing many people to what 100% sheep’s milk can do in a bloomy rind style. In the next sections, I’ll share a bit about how we make it (and how that differs from industrial methods), the unique qualities of sheep’s milk (hello, A2 protein!), and why no two Tommettes are ever exactly the same.
Crafting Tommette: A Natural Approach to Cheesemaking
People often ask us about our cheesemaking process for Tomette de Brebis. While we won’t go step-by-step in detail, we want to highlight what makes our approach traditional and natural, especially compared to industrial cheesemaking. At the heart of it is this principle: we let nature do a lot of the work. We believe great cheese starts with great milk and vibrant natural cultures, not a packet of freeze-dried powders.
It all begins in the milk room on the day of cheesemaking. We start with fresh, high-quality sheep’s milk from our morning milking. Our East Friesian sheep (a dairy breed we raise) produce milk that is rich, sweet, and ideally suited for cheese. We use it in as raw a state as possible for Tommette. In fact, Tomette de Brebie is made with our raw sheep’s milk, not pasteurized. That might sound scary to some, but raw-milk cheeses have been made safely for centuries, and we age Tommette well past the legal 60-day minimum for raw cheese. Using raw milk preserves more of the natural bacteria and enzymes that contribute flavor. It’s part of our commitment to traditional methods – we want the cheese to express the milk’s true character.
Natural Kefir Fermentation
One of the most special aspects of our process is how we ferment the milk. In modern industrial cheesemaking, the typical method is to add a packet of freeze-dried starter culture (pure strains of bacteria) to pasteurized milk. These lab-grown cultures are designed to acidify the milk in a very controlled, uniform way. It’s convenient and consistent, but we’ve found it can be limiting in terms of flavor complexity. We take a different route, inspired by the teachings of artisan cheesemakers like David Asher (author of The Art of Natural Cheesemaking). Instead of commercial packets, we use living kefir as our starter culture.
Kefir is a fermented milk beverage teeming with dozens of strains of bacteria and yeasts. If you’ve never had it, think of something like a tangy yogurt drink but with even more probiotics. We maintain our own kefir “grains” at the farm – these are little cauliflower-like clusters of microbes that we culture in milk every day. When it’s time to make cheese, we add a portion of our active kefir to the sheep’s milk. This inoculates the cheese milk with a broad spectrum of microorganisms, effectively “re-wilding” the milk with diverse cultures. As David Asher points out, adding kefir to pasteurized milk restores a rich microbial community that can drive fermentation in a more natural, dynamic way. It’s the opposite of the monoculture approach – we’re inviting a whole symphony of microbes to the party!
Team Powerhouse
Using kefir as a starter has several benefits. First, it brings complexity. Kefir made from real grains can contain 50–100 different probiotic strains, far more than a typical yogurt or freeze-dried starter. This diversity of lactic bacteria and friendly yeasts leads to a complexity of flavor in the cheese that single-strain cultures can’t match. It’s like the difference between a chorus and a soloist. Second, kefir’s microbes are hardy and symbiotic; they acidify the milk at a natural pace and also fend off unwanted bacteria. In fact, some of the yeasts in kefir can help develop the rind flora and add aroma. Third, we love that kefir is a natural starter we can propagate indefinitely – it aligns with our philosophy of low-input, sustainable cheesemaking. We’re literally growing our own culture, not buying it in a foil packet.
After fermentation, we add natural rennet to coagulate the curd, cut the curds gently, and ladle them into small forms. The curds for Tomette are very soft (we don’t cook or press them much), so the cheese retains a lot of moisture – this is key to a creamy soft cheese. Each little wheel is hand-turned and eventually salted, then moved to our aging room.
The Aging Cave: Where Magic Happens
Once the young Tommette de Brebis is in the aging cave, Mother Nature retakes center stage. How do we start the rind? Not with packets. We wash Tommette in whey-salted brine, the lively liquid left after making our kefir cheeses. That whey carries a broad spectrum of lactic bacteria and yeasts, which settle on the surface and guide a gentle, natural bloom. Within a few days, you’ll see a thin white fuzz start to develop on the surfaces of the cheese. This is the bloomy rind beginning to form.
We age Tommette de Brebis on breathable mats in a cool, humid room – our little cheese cave. The conditions are carefully maintained: around 10–12°C and high humidity (90%+). We check on the cheeses frequently, flipping them to ensure even rind growth. Over the following weeks, those white molds grow and bloom to form a uniform rind. Beneath that rind, their enzymes are breaking down the proteins and fats in the sheep milk curd. This is when the cheese softens and matures. We can actually see the change if we cut a test wheel – a translucent creamy layer starts to appear under the rind and gradually expands inward. That’s the ripening process in action.
Traditional Choices
Our approach here is quite traditional and low-intervention. We don’t use any artificial preservatives or inhibitors that some industrial cheesemakers might use to control mold growth.
During aging, we rely on our senses and experience to decide when each batch is ready. There’s no exact formula – one batch might peak at 8 weeks, another we might take to 12 or more weeks. We gently press the rind to feel the softness, we smell the cheese for hints of ammonia (a sign to slow down aging), and we even taste-test periodically. This is the artisan advantage: we’re not just ticking days on a calendar; we’re actively listening to the cheese and letting it tell us when it’s ripe.
Traditional vs. Industrial: A Philosophy
Our natural approach is quite different from industrial cheesemaking, which prioritizes speed and uniformity. In big factories, cheesemakers often rely on standardized recipes, industrial cultures, pasteurized milk, and mechanization to pump out large volumes of identical cheese. There’s nothing inherently wrong with consistency, of course – we all enjoy a reliable Brie from the store now and then – but we choose a more old-fashioned road. We align with what David Asher advocates: traditional, non-industrial methods that eschew the freeze-dried lab cultures and synthetic additives in favor of living cultures and raw ingredients. Asher’s book even calls out modern cheesemaking for being “decidedly unnatural” in its over-reliance on packaged cultures and chemicals. In contrast, he (and we) prefer an intuitive, ecology-driven method that works with the microbes in raw milk and the environment.
Asher’s philosophy, which inspires us, is somewhat countercultural in today’s cheese industry. He encourages small cheesemakers to keep their own starter cultures and fungal cultures, make use of time-honored techniques, and avoid the shortcuts of “Big Dairy”. In fact, he outright protests the use of laboratory-grown freeze-dried cultures in cheesemaking. We take that to heart at Secret Lands Farm. By using kefir and natural flora, we’ve essentially created a tiny, farm-specific microbiome that drives our cheese fermentation. This yields cheeses with a sense of place and originality – they’re the products of our land, our animals, and our unique cellar conditions, rather than products of identical laboratory strains used everywhere.
Every Batch is One of a Kind
One of the most beautiful (and challenging) aspects of making an artisanal cheese like Tommette de Brebis is that each batch is unique. We follow the same basic recipe and techniques for every make, but the cheeses never turn out identical. And truth be told, we love that. In an era where industrial food is all about consistency, we take pride in the subtle variations that make each Tommette special. Handcrafted cheese is a living product; it’s influenced by countless factors – the season, the weather, the microbes, the maker – so no two wheels are ever 100% the same.
The Milk Role
Let’s talk about some of those factors. First and foremost: the milk changes through the seasons. Our ewes’ diet shifts with the pasture cycle, and that affects their milk. In spring and summer, when the sheep are grazing fresh grasses and wildflowers, the milk can have higher notes of sweetness and even hints of the foliage. It might be a tad lower in fat and protein compared to the fall, since spring milk yields more volume as the sheep hit peak production. As cheesemakers, we notice the curds are a bit more delicate in spring – we handle them extra gently. The resulting Tommette de Brebis in spring might develop a slightly thinner texture or a more floral, gentle flavor.
Contrast that with autumn milk: late in the season, our sheep are producing less volume but the milk becomes super rich (higher butterfat and protein). This fall milk gives us a very lush curd that tends to make Tommettes that are dense, creamy, and full-flavored. We often get more yellowish butterfat visible in the curd. A Tommette made in October from grass and hay-fed milk might have a deep golden interior and a pronounced nutty, toasted-grain aroma. Same recipe, different milk = a different cheese personality.
Aging Room Microflora
Then there’s the microflora in our aging room, which I sometimes call our house culture. Over years of making cheese in the same space, the walls, the wooden shelves, and even the air conditioning ducts have become home to beneficial cheese microbes. Every artisan cheese cellar develops its own unique microbiome. If we were to make the same cheese in another facility, it might ripen differently because the ambient flora isn’t identical.
Our particular aging cave tends to favor a mix of molds and yeasts that lean toward an earthy, mushroomy profile. But even slight differences in humidity and temperature week to week can affect how fast the rind grows or how thick it gets. For example, if one week the cave runs a bit more humid than usual, we might see a fluffier rind and a slightly faster breakdown of the cheese core. If it’s another week, it’s a tad drier, the rind might stay thinner, and the cheese interior a bit firmer. We monitor these conditions, but small fluctuations happen naturally, especially with changing weather outside (a humid thunderstorm vs. a crisp dry day makes a difference, even indoors).
Human Touch
The human element is another variable. As much as we try to be consistent, cheesemaking is an art performed by people, not machines, on our farm. Different hands may stir the curd with varying degrees of gentleness. One day we might cut the curd a fraction of an inch larger or smaller than another day. Or maybe we decided to salt the curds 10 minutes later than usual because the acidity curve looked different – that too can influence moisture and flavor.
Even our mood and energy can subtly infuse the process. We swear that cheese knows if you’re impatient or if you’re attentive and loving! On days when we are relaxed and joyful, it feels like the cheeses turn out extra good. At least that’s our romantic view – and it gives meaning to that notion of “made with love.” We provide each batch our care, but we’re not robots, so naturally, each batch has a touch of individuality.
The Beautiful Variety
Now, some might see variability as a downside – after all, the big cheese companies strive for each wheel to be indistinguishable. But in artisan cheesemaking, we see variability as a strength. It means the cheese is alive and tied to its origins. As one cheese article nicely put it, in artisan cheesemaking, “no two batches are exactly alike, making each wheel a unique creation.”. We embrace that fully. Each Tomette is a snapshot of a particular day’s milk and circumstances. They’re like siblings – you can tell they’re family, but each has its own quirks.
When you buy a Tommette de Brebis from us, you might notice one time it’s a bit softer and funkier, another time a bit firmer and milder. For true cheese aficionados, such nuances are exciting. Much like wine vintages, our cheeses have vintages of a sort. And for those new to artisan cheese, it’s a great lesson that cheese isn’t necessarily supposed to taste exactly the same every time – when it’s handmade, variation is part of the charm.
Aging of Tommette de Brebis
An interesting thing we’ve observed is how the aging length plays with these batch differences. Because some Tommettes age longer, that adds another layer of uniqueness. A younger (say 6-week) Tommette from a summer batch will be mild, firm in the center, with a taste of fresh cream and champignon mushrooms. An older (say 4-month) Tomette from that same batch will have a drier interior, a browner rind, and a much sharper taste – perhaps notes of toasted nuts, hay, even a bit of piquant bite.
In summary, every Tommette de Brebis carries the fingerprint of its particular make. The milk composition, the day’s climate, the cave microflora, and yes, the cheesemaker’s hand ais nd heart, all combine to create a one-of-a-kind result each time. This is the beauty of truly handmade cheese: it has character and surprises built in. We wouldn’t have it any other way. To quote a sentiment from a Wisconsin artisan cheese guide, artisan cheesemakers rely on intuition and adjust to environmental factors and milk composition, so no two batches are alike – each wheel a unique work of art. That perfectly describes what we do here with Tomette. And indeed, it’s a work of art we’re continually crafting and appreciating.
In Conclusion
Tommette de Brebis is more than just a cheese to us – it’s a story, a tradition, and a little piece of our farm that we offer to you. It embodies the rich heritage of soft-ripened cheeses while carrying our own farm’s fingerprint through natural cheesemaking and sheep’s milk goodness. From the science of molds and A2 proteins to the art of affinage and the joy of tasting, we’ve poured our passion into every wheel. And we’re still learning and marveling with each batch.
We invite you to taste this journey for yourself. Enjoy Tommette de Brebis with an open mind and curious palate – perhaps with a glass of something bubbly and a dollop of honey – and experience how a bloomy-rind sheep cheese from Secret Lands Farm can capture so many of the things we treasure: tradition, nature, and the simple pleasure of delicious food made with love. Bon appétit!
Sources:
- Secret Lands Farm – Tommette de Brebis product descriptionsecretlands.casecretlands.ca
- Spruce Eats – Explanation of soft-ripened (bloomy rind) cheesesthespruceeats.comthespruceeats.com
- Cheese Grotto – What is Bloomy Rind Cheese? (mold cultures and origins)cheesegrotto.comcheesegrotto.com
- David Asher, The Art of Natural Cheesemaking – advocacy of natural cultures over freeze-driedchelseagreen.comchelseagreen.com
- The Fermentary – Discussion of David Asher’s kefir-based method (“re-wilding” milk)thefermentary.com.au
- Secret Lands Farm Blog – Natural A2 Milk Explained (A1 vs A2 proteins in milk)secretlands.casecretlands.ca
- GardnersWisconsinCheese.com – The Art of Cheesemaking (artisan batch variation)gardnerswisconsincheese.com