Cowgirl Creamery is best known for its aged, European style, cheeses like Mt Tam and Red Hawk. But the ladies parcel our a fair selection of fresh cheeses as well, all of which can lift your morning, or your entertaining, to another level.
Yesterday, we looked at Cowgirl's aged cheeses. Here's a look at the line of fresh products from the Cowgirl fridge at the Ferry Building shop.
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Cowgirl Creamery has always been an SFoodie favorite, and since the ladies have started adding new cheeses this year, we felt a more inclusive survey of the line was warranted. Here's a look at the new, and the old, aged cheeses. (We'll get to the fresh cheeses in another post.)
Wagon Wheel
The newest cheese from Cowgirl is distinct from the rest in being made in 25 pound wheels rather than the smaller, self-contained ones that the Mt Tam variants come in. Cowgirl markets this as their "everyday" cheese. Mid-yellow color, with a darkened, slightly waxy rind, this is dense and firm, with a modestly rubbery body, like a lightly aged mozzarella. It's pleasant and mild with a slight note of the rennet bringing a tiny tang toward the finish -- like gruyère without the noticeable nuttiness.
Where:The Cheese School of San Francisco
When: Fri., November 11, 7-9 p.m.
Cost: $35
The rundown: Every year, the Cheese School in North Beach hosts a bunch of California's cheesemakers to raise funds for the California Artisan Cheese Guild. Hobnob with the head cheesemakers from Cowgirl Creamery, Bellwether Farms, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Marin French, Cypress Grove Chevre, Laura Chenel, Nicasio Valley Cheese, Beehive Cheese, North Bay Curds and Whey, and more.
This year, you'll also get to eat grilled cheese champion (?) Michael Davidson's sandwiches and Maggie Ford's goat fudge, which is presumably more appetizing than it sounds. Artist Sita Bhaumik is creating a cheese-inspired piece for the event, and musician Larry Gallagher has composed an ode to fromage.
Tickets available on the Cheese School's website.
Just as the Bay Area has a shorts-to-sweater array of micro climates, it has a stunning selection of micro-cultures of cheesmaking. You can find examples of cheese styles from countries around the world and milks across the animal spectrum throughout the Bay.
Barinaga Ranch in West Marin adds Basque cheese to the choices. Owner Marcia Barinaga is, "continuing the ancient shepherding and cheese making traditions of my Basque family and ancestors in Euskadi, the Basque region of Spain," she says.
Barinaga makes cheese seasonally, with the natural milk cycle of her sheep. Animals produce milk to feed their young, not to make cheese. To meet volume demands, many cheese makers will raise animals indoors or use other tricks to stimulate year-round milk production. Baringa's herd grazes outdoors all year. The ewes have their lambs in March, and have milk enough to spare for cheese from April through October thereafter.
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Cypress Grove, producer of one of my favorite local cheeses (Truffle Tremor), is offering two new variations in its soft goat chevre collection: PsycheDillic and Sgt. Pepper. 
This brings its offerings in the category to six, and to continue the naming theme, all are available in an assorted six pack of 4-oz. packages known as the Flashback Six Pack: Purple Haze, Herbs de Humboldt, Ms. Natural and the two new flavors. Perhaps something other than grass for cattle is growing in Humboldt County that spawns these ideas?
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As farmers' markets have increased in quantity and quality, artisan farm-based producers are using them for direct distribution. Along with bakeries and fish mongers, meat purveyors and prepared food folks, cheese makers are setting up stands to show their curds and wares.
Achadinha Cheese Company is a family-owned goat farm in Petaluma producing goat cheeses and even goat sausage. The Pacheco family that runs the farm is using farmers' markets to reach you. While their goat sausage is mild enough to appeal to those resistant to the gaminess of goat, the star of the Achandinha show is their Capricious cheese.
Capricious is the cheese I went searching for at the Fort Mason farmers' market last weekend. The cheese took a "Best in Show" at the American Cheese Society, a big deal in cheeseland, and I wanted to see what the local folks were doing that trumped the rest of the country.
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To be considered "farmstead," a cheese must be produced on the farm from which its milk originated. Hence it is appropriate, certainly more so than kettle corn and funnel cakes, to find farmstead cheese at a farmers' market. 
Ben Narasin Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Nicasio Reserve, Foggy Morning, Nicasio Square
On my visit this weekend to the Fort Mason farmers' market to pick up some award-winning cheese (more on that in a later post), I came across Nicasio Valley Cheese Company, a family-run "Certified Organic Farmstead Cheese" producer from Nicasio in West Marin.
While I struggle to believe their claim that they are "California's only certified organic farmstead cheesemakers," I'll leave that aside because the cheese is worth talking about. The Lafranchi family that runs the farm came to the US from Switzerland and brought the Swiss view of cheese, and a Swiss master cheese maker as a mentor, to create cheeses reminiscent of their native Valle Maggia. All are made from cow's milk.
These are not the simple Swiss cheeses of cartoon mousecapades. Nary a hole in site. These are products plateable for your premium party platter. Of the six cheeses you can find at Fort Mason I'd focus on three:
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Tillamook cheese kicked off its S.F. Loaf Love Tour with a stop at, duh, the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. 
Mac 'n' cheese grilled cheese, if you please. Carina Ost
The American's Commander-in-Cheese, Heidi, got the party started with a reveal of its new sandwich, the mac 'n' cheese grilled cheese. Take that in for a second. Okay, now we can proceed. She was quick to mention that the American didn't invent this concept, but was hoping to make a second appearance on This Is Why You're Fat. The sandwich came about because of a love the staffers share for tinkering in the kitchen. One employee known for particularly wacky inventions emerged from the test kitchen one day with a mac 'n' cheese sandwich. "Look what I made!" she exclaimed, and they were all very impressed. Oh, and they wanted to share it with us. Sweet.
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Cheese Lover's Nightlife
Janky Barge DJ Collective Knows How to Have a Good Time.
Where: California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse (at Martin Luther King Jr., in Golden Gate Park), 379-8000
When: Thurs., May 26, 6-10 p.m.
Cost: $12 ($10 for members)
The rundown: The California Academy of Sciences stages themed Thursday night minglers, trying to drum up more business from the young and curious. Tonight, their focus is pure dairy. Finally, some science that matters! There will be tastings from over a dozen artisanal cheesemakers, as well as talks and book signings from cheese wizards Gordon Edgar and Laura Werlin. Did we mention the Janky Barge DJ Collective will be there to blow your cheese-addled mind? Truth.
Buy tickets at the California Academy of Sciences website
New York refugee Jesse Hirsch tweets at @Jesse_Hirsch. Follow SFoodie at @sfoodie, and like us on Facebook.
