Several western Canadian cheese makers won awards for their products earlier this month at the Canadian Cheese Awards in Toronto.
Crystal Springs Cheese of Lethbridge won the best feta cheese in brine category with its goat’s milk product, while Noble Meadows Farm of Nobleford, Alta., won the best farmstead cheese category with its plain soft goat cheese.
Sylvan Star Cheese of Red Deer won the best smoked cheese category with a natural smoked gouda, and Natural Pastures Cheese of Courtenay, B.C., won in the best water buffalo cheese category.
In regional awards, the Farm House Natural Cheeses from Agassiz, B.C., won for best British Columbia cheese with its traditional clothbound cheddar.
Sylvan Star won the best Alberta cheese title, again with its smoked gouda.
This was the inaugural year for the competition, which featured 291 cheeses from 76 producers.
Cheese of the year was Le Baluchon from Fromagerie FX Pichet of Sainte Anne de la Perade, Que.
