Saskatoon’s The Cheese List offers hard to find Canadian cheeses

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Companies and non-profit organizations recurrently open and transfer in Saskatoon. At present the StarPhoenix talks to married couple Kathryn MacDonald and Bret Eldstrom who lately realized a longtime dream by opening The Cheese List in Caswell Hill.

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Since assembly on the Culinary Institute of Canada in PEI, the place each obtained their culinary arts diplomas a decade in the past, MacDonald and Eldstrom have labored in kitchens throughout Canada however ultimately settled again in Eldstrom’s hometown of Saskatoon. Married in 2017, the pair dreamt of opening their very own retailer collectively, and felt thirty third Road was the perfect location to introduce Saskatoon to a singular market of cheeses in any other case in a roundabout way obtainable right here.

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Q: Why did you resolve to open The Cheese Checklist?

Bret Eldstrom: I very a lot take pleasure in cheese however you’re a bit restricted with the choices on this metropolis for the time being. We thought perhaps give everyone another choice.

Kathryn MacDonald: There’s loads of various factors that went into this one for us. We each have been within the restaurant trade for a mixed 30ish years and simply at a distinct place in our life the place we wished extra management over our jobs. We additionally noticed a chance out there, and we considered this one for fairly a while. We have now some capability to adapt it and develop to what we would like it to appear to be. It looks as if there are such a lot of totally different choices right here versus opening a restaurant. We wished to do some cheese and charcuterie boards and issues like that, and likewise subscription bins. I’ve my WSET stage 2, so (we will do) wine and cheese pairings. There are simply so many various avenues the place we will develop it on the tempo that we wish to.

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Q: What forms of cheeses are you that includes?

BE: We can be including cheeses each month. We’ll hold including new ones, and we’ll hold sourcing out totally different producers and distributors. To start with, will probably be fairly heavy on Canadian cheeses. Quite a bit are from Quebec. And we would like to have the ability to provide cheeses that this metropolis most likely hasn’t had earlier than — individuals could have had them, however they wouldn’t be capable to purchase them within the metropolis except they ordered it on-line or one thing like that.

We’ll have the Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar from the COWS Creamery in Prince Edward Island. One other one which we might have that you simply most likely can’t get wherever else within the metropolis known as Louis D’Or Grand Reserve three years. So it’s aged for 3 years. It’s fairly the good cheese, and that’s from Quebec. Yet one more that we’ve known as Baluchon, an natural farmstead washed rind cheese made by Fromagerie L’Ancetre in Quebec. One other known as L’Adoray — solely about 150g and wrapped in spruce bark — made by Fromajerie Montebello in Quebec. It’s a really, very good cheese. You possibly can nearly simply reduce the highest off, after which simply spoon it out onto bread. Then there may be Elgin Buffalo, a water buffalo milk cheese by Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese in Ontario. And there are too many extra to depend.

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Q: What makes your retailer distinctive?

KM: You possibly can attempt samples of something that you really want. But additionally there’s a reduce to order facet of our store. You possibly can are available in and get as little or as a lot as you need. Every thing is priced by 100g. In that regard we’re attempting to essentially protect the standard of the cheese as a result of as quickly because it’s reduce, it does begin to slowly degrade. We actually respect the components, respect the producers, and decrease waste.

BE: I believe the number of cheese considerably units us aside. We’ll consistently be taking a look at new producers and cheese makers, small and enormous, and we’ll be engaged on getting an import license so we will usher in some cheese from the U.S. that most likely no person has seen right here. They make some very top quality cheese over there. And as a substitute of getting to depend on what a distributor in Canada has, we might get hold of and search for cheeses from Europe after which carry them over ourselves.

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Q: Are you that includes any native cheese merchandise?

BE: The one native ones we’ll begin with would be the three cheeses that Saskatoon Spruce makes — authentic, applewood smoked and his seasonal for the time being is a dill cheese. They can be utilized in loads of methods.

Q: What do you might have past cheese?

KM: We have now some Pig & Pantry frozen sausages, after which we’re going to be getting in some extra native mustard and honeys as effectively. However I believe the larger factor that we’ll be beginning to deal with, particularly with the vacation season developing, could be cheese boards, meat boards, charcuterie boards, after which subscription bins

BE: The cheese and the charcuterie can be sliced to order. And it additionally provides us the flexibility to let clients pattern just about any cheese. There’s a pair they’ll’t simply because they’re so small that we don’t reduce them. All the salamis and the opposite cured meat, they’ll pattern. And all the charcuterie can be native. It’s from The Cure and from Hillside Food, Kitchen, and Farm, in Duval, Saskatchewan. After which we could have some Pig & Pantry merchandise as effectively.

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To start with, all the preserves and condiments can be from Kristen’s Homemade Preserves, however then we may also have a pair merchandise from Hillside Food, Kitchen & Farm. He makes a very nice oak-aged malt vinegar utilizing a Nokomis beer. He additionally has a cold-pressed, additional virgin canola oil, and all of the canola comes from his farm. And he has a ketchup that we’ve in, and we’ve a beet relish, too. Just like the cheese, we are going to hold including merchandise as we go, however we’ll attempt to hold issues as native as we will.

Q: How does your subscription service work?

KM: Ideally, what we’re going to do is a one, three or six month subscription, and each month you’ll get a field of most likely 4 or 5 cheeses. The load will range barely relying on the cheeses we put in, however they are going to be shock cheeses that we’ll most likely usher in only for that — ones not on the store but. They’ll even have accompaniments and a few pairing choices and concepts of various methods to make use of them as effectively. So it’s going to be form of somewhat shock cheese board. It’s somewhat bit within the course of. I believe we might begin taking orders (quickly) for that, and perhaps beginning it in 2023 after we work out a number of extra particulars.

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This interview has been edited and condensed

The Cheese Checklist

House owners: Kathryn MacDonald and Bret Eldstrom
Handle: 413 – thirty third Road West
Hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to six p.m.; Closed Sundays
Cellphone: 306-652-4828
E mail: thecheeselist@gmail.com
Web site: thecheeselist.ca
Examine: Facebook, Instagram

Have you ever lately began or moved a brand new enterprise or non-profit group in Saskatoon? We wish to hear your story. Please e mail drice@postmedia.com

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