Our cheese series continues with Appel Farms. I’ve been sampling and buying Appel Farms’ cheeses for the past two years at the University District Farmer’s Market. The other day, I spoke to Janet while sampling some of their cheese curds.

Appel Farms at the University District Farmer’s Market

How Long Have You Been At The Markets? Appel Farms has been selling their cheese at the farmers markets for 4 years.

Where Are You Located? Appel Farms is located in Ferndale, outside of Bellingham.

Which Markets Do You Attend? Appel Farms sells at the University District Farmers’ Market, the Coumbia City Market and the Lake City market.

What Do You Sell? Appel Farms sells cheese. But not just any cheese. They sell a wide variety of interesting and pleasantly quirky cheese flavors. Their Goudas include: smoked, Jalepeno, cumin, and sweet pepper. Their cheddars include garden herb, pepperoni, and even chocolate chip. They also sell Quark.

What is Quark? Quark is a soft, mild, fresh white yogurt cheese. It’s similar to curd, but with a smoother texture. They produce all of their own ingredients (milk and mother culture) for Quark and so they can maintain a very high quality for the finished product. I tasted the Quark and it was somewhere between plain yogurt and a smooth, creamy ricotta. Janet mixed it with some fresh jam from Woodrings and I nearly couldn’t stop myself from buying both right then and there.

Tell Us About Your Cheese: All of their cheese is made fresh on the farm. All of the cheese is cow’s milk cheese and they maintain all of their own cows. Appel Farms welcomes visitors to their farm to see the cows and watch the cheese-making process. In fact, they’ll even supply the authentic farm odor to complete your visit.

What is Your Favorite Part of the Market? Janet’s favorite part of the market is watching all of the kids run up to sample the cheese curds. Billed as Squeaky Cheese”, these curds are available in two flavors: plain and garlic dill. The curds squeak slightly as you bite into them. While I was talking to Janet, half a dozen children eagerly pressed forward to sample the curds.

Appel Farms
Ferndale, WA
360-384-4996

As always, remember… if you try one of the vendors we cover in this series, be sure to tell them you read about them on MetBlogs!