Capri Cheese from Capri Creamery

Felix's artisan cheeses

Fetas

Brined, cured cheeses: French and Bulgarian feta

French feta is a mild, soft, creamy feta. Felix makes it fresh year-around in small batches. photo of fresh and aging cheesesHe pasteurizes the milk, adds it to the vat, adds his own cultures, and coagulates it with the highest quality rennet on the market.

Next, he hand ladles it into feta cheese hoops from Italy. Felix works about 8 hours on each batch of feta, start to finish, depending on quantites. He usually makes between 200 and 500 pounds of cheese. He turns the hoops many times to create a nice square block.

The cheese remains in the cheese forms overnight until a pleasant cheese aroma develops.

Fetas are packed in buckets or kegs and brined for at least 8 weeks to develop a nice feta flavor. Felix brines his feta (or ages it, see below) until it get shipped to the store, to you, or taken to the Dane County Farmers' Market. Once fresh fetas are a year or year and a half old, they become Bulgarian feta. Mellowness becomes a much more fully developed, aged cheese flavor.

Marinated feta

French feta is marinated for weeks to a few months in extra virgin olive oil with an Italian herbal spice mix, sage, marjoram, oregano, thyme, rosemary plus chili peppers. Olive oil is a natural preservative and will keep a cheese from spoiling indefintely under refrigeration.

Greek Feta and Mediterranean Feta

Greek fetas are made the same way. In the beginning they are milder, Felix adds natural enyzmes to create the flavorful undertones that Greek feta is famous for, but with an essence thyme, so it adds a wonderful Mediterranean flavor. This cheese was inspired by Chef Sabi of the Casbah Restaurant in Madison.

Washed Rind Cheeses

Felix makes photo of govarti roundsfresh and aged fetas and a new cave-aged goat cheese he calls "Govarti," which has a nutty complex flavor that deepens with age.

Govarti and St. Felix Cheese

St Felix cheeseThese American Originals are an inventive combination between Havarti and Gouda created by Felix in his small creamery. He uses only raw milk (because it's aged more than 60 days) for full flavor. The milk is innoculated, cut, washed and pressed into Gouda molds from Denmark. These aartisan cheeses are then dry salted for 2 days and cured on cedar boards. They are washed every day for two weeks, then every other day, schmeared with addtional culture during the first two weeks, turned, and kept at high humidity until they find a happy home. St. Pauliner cheese This whole process takes two to three years. Early versions of this cheese are ready now, and it has been named St. Felix™ cheese. And Felix is making a mixed milk -- half goat half cow milk -- washed rind cheese, called St. Pauliner™. It's aged for four to eight months and it has notes of Limburger cheese.

Bear Cheese™

Bear cheeses are made with traditional Muenster techniques. The fresh young version of the cheese is very mild, which pleases people who have recently come to enjoy goat cheeses. For more advanced tasters, Felix has successfully apple-smoked the same cheese (Smoky Bear™) and producued a washed rind version called Washed Bear™. You can get them at Whole Foods in Madison, the Viroqua Food Coop and the Dane County Farmers' Market. Also, you can find them at Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee and the Brookfield's Sendik's store. Felix is also making a stick bear cheese, which is a traditional muenster with an orange skin and made with goat milk. Since it comes in a stick shape, he calls it "Stick Bear™." And Felix's new muenster made with cow milk is called "Moo Bear™." Tell Felix if you want your store to carry it.

Cheddar

Goat milk Cheddars are traditionally made in small batches of 200-500 lbs pressed into 40 lb blocks. Felix is developing a raw milk line of flavored Cheddar cheeses: tomato-basil-garlic, chive-onion, and crushed peppercorn. He may do a Blue Cheddar and age it.