Ontario cheese maker ready to downsize and return to the glory days of crafting every batch
An Ontario woman says she’s ready to sell her farm and get back into the business of making each and every batch of cheese her company produces.
“I'm gonna just go back and start making all the cheese myself. And it's kind of exciting and scary, but mostly because I think it's good actually. It's like coming full circle,” Ruth Klahsen, owner of Stratford-based Monforte Dairy, told CTV News Toronto.
On the first afternoon of summer, Klahsen, a mainstay in Toronto’s farmers’ market circuit, sat beneath a white tent shaving samples of her Little Boy Blue cheese for customers visiting Trinity Bellwoods – one of the six markets she visits every week in the summer.
“It was small and intimate,” the 65-year-old said, thinking back to the early days of her now 20-year-old company. She was operating the business solo, making every batch herself at a dairy in Millbank, Ont.
At the time, Klahsen said the food industry felt energized. It was the early 2000s, the beginning of a newfound appreciation for slow food with local roots.
“I think there was a real cohesiveness around food. I think we've lost a lot of that, even before the pandemic, I think. And I'm not sure why it makes me a little bit sad. But it was a really precious time,” she said.
Ruth Klahsen, owner of Stratford-based Monforte Dairy, sits in Trinity Bellwoods Park on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 (CTV News Toronto/ Hannah Alberga). Her business started with three cheeses – all of which are still top sellers today. One was a firm pecorino toscano made of sheep’s milk, another was a softer fleur du maquis with a natural rind rolled in rosemary, summer savory, juniper and chilies; and the third was a spongy, creamy and as Klahsen puts it, “sexy,” taleggio cheese.
“Ironically, the farther along we get, it's those core ones that are the ones that are the best cheeses,” she said.
Klahsen’s desire to get back to the place where her business started is not just a dream, it’s actually in the works.
“I wish I'd stayed smaller. Ironically, we're going to go back to being much smaller. I'm gonna sell the farm,” she said.
Monforte Dairy cheese on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 (CTV News Toronto/ Hannah Alberga). By the fall, she’ll get back to the art of crafting every batch.
“I think cheese is so humbling because it's one ingredient,” Klahsen said.
“I think more than anything we need pleasure in life. And I think we need pleasure out of small things that are daily.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.