What’s Prairie Tomme?
Green Dirt Farm’s Prairie Tomme is our rustic, mountain-style hard cheese made from 100% sheep’s milk. It’s similar to sheep’s milk cheeses from the Pyrenees mountains—like Idiazabal and Ossau Iraty—but it has its own unique character thanks to the distinctive flavors from the grasses and plants our sheep graze on. Sarah first learned to make this style of cheese in 2010 from a Croatian cheese maker who showed her the traditional techniques behind Paski Sir, a fabulous but little-known Croatian sheep’s milk cheese. Just like the sheep on the Island of Pag (where Paski Sir is made) graze on wild grasses and herbs that flavor their milk, our sheep do the same here. Our cheese-making team keeps refining the recipe each year to create the fantastic cheese we make today.
Making Prairie Tomme
To make Prairie Tomme, we cut the curd very small—about the size of rice kernels—then cook it slowly and press it, which creates a lower-moisture, hard cheese. After cutting and cooking, we gather the curd and “hoop” it into forms that give each wheel its characteristic size and shape. Each wheel weighs about four pounds and measures seven inches across. Once it’s pressed and drained overnight, we rub it with salt. Then it goes into our temperature and humidity-controlled aging “caves” (really just specially modified walk-in refrigerators). During aging, we baby each wheel, washing it with brine and hand-rubbing it to help the rind develop.
The aging process usually takes at least three months. As Prairie Tomme ages, it becomes harder, saltier, and much more flavorful. We taste it at different points along the way to figure out the best time to release it for sale. Our longest-aged Prairie Tomme is similar to a well-aged parmesan but with lovely “sheepy” flavors that make it special. A well-aged Prairie Tomme tastes nutty and caramel-y, with hints of brown butter. The rind smells like grass and minerals, with an earthy, wet clay aroma.
Eating Prairie Tomme
You can cut Prairie Tomme into wedges or batons for a beautiful cheese board, where it adds a lovely contrast in texture and flavor. It also makes a delicious cheese soup or grilled cheese sandwich, and it grates beautifully over dishes as a substitute for parmesan or pecorino. Prairie Tomme pairs wonderfully with Belgian-style ales and lagers, Pinot Noir or Burgundy reds, Spanish chorizo, and pears.
Prairie Tomme Pride
We’re incredibly proud that Prairie Tomme took first place in its category at the 2023 “Oscars of Cheese” (the American Cheese Society Competition) and then went on to win third place in Best in Show! Prairie Tomme was even featured on the cover of Culture Magazine’s Best Cheeses of 2023 issue. It also won a blue ribbon in the aged sheep’s-milk cheese category in 2022. What really makes us proud, though, is that Prairie Tomme won a “Good Food Award” in both 2024 and 2018. These awards are special because they go to food crafters who don’t just nail it in a blind tasting—they also meet the Good Food Foundation’s standards for environmental and social responsibility.
