Goot Essa Cheese Giveaway (Plus: A Closer Look at Cheese Caves)
We’re doing a cheese basket giveaway for Goot Essa. You can enter to win simply by leaving a comment on this post. I’ll post the winner here Friday.
The assortment that owner John Esh and co. are giving away is called “Amish Tastes” (see below):
From the description:
This medium-bodied cheese trio features a palate-pleasing array of flavors. From our buttery Old German Weissa Kase to our rich and smoky Mountain Home Woodsmoked Cheddar and the savory-sweet Mountain Valley Sharp Cheddar, there’s something for everyone.
It includes the following, and serves 3-4:
Cheeses:
- 4 oz. Old German Weissa Cheese
- 4 oz. Mountain Home Woodsmoked Cheddar Cheese
- 4 oz. Mountain Valley Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Condiments:
- 1.5 oz. Autumn Dawn Apple Butter
- 1.5 oz. Reuben’s Stone Ground Mustard
- 1.5 oz. Sweet & Spicy Dipping Mustard
To enter for a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll draw a random winner and announce it this Friday, so be sure to check back.
You can also subscribe in the box at the bottom of this post (free) to make sure you’re notified through our email newsletter.
John Esh on Cheese Caves & Running A Family Business
I put together a video with some excerpts from my extended conversation with John Esh.
John explains cheese caves, different types of cheeses, and the family aspect of his business – something that always seems to be important in Amish businesses.
Check out the video or read the full transcript below. You’ll also see some photos below of the cheese caves from my visit to Goot Essa.
John & Erik Talk Cheese
John Esh of Goot Essa: …So he kept asking me there in the nineties, John, how do you plan to keep your family on the farm? Because I know that you cannot compete on the same scale as a herd that’s 3,000 cows with your 70 cows.
Well, we knew we had a quality product – milk. We came up with the idea – Let’s let’s get some cheese made.
We started selling our cheeses to restaurants, to some cheese shops. And the restaurants, they were looking for some more European-style cheeses, the cheeses with a natural rind.
So we’re talking cheeses like manchego, pecorino, camembert, blue cheese, Gruyere style, the European style, in addition to the cheddars, the flavored cheddars, those types of cheeses. So that’s where we’ve now come, where we have 19 cheeses that we produce.
Cheese Caves
Erik Wesner: What is a cheese cave? What’s that for? Why is that important?
John: Basically, what we have is three different rooms in the side of a hill here close to the mountain, and we encased it in concrete. And the reason for the cave environment is the humidity needs to be about 90%. For the natural rind, the cheese rests on wooden boards.
John: The room is, like, 14 feet wide, 52 feet long is the largest room. The soft cheeses, we have in a much smaller room.
But, again, the the reason for the cave is the high humidity and the cool environment. About 52 degrees, 85% humidity, and that’s where the cheeses will rest on the wooden shelves and develop a natural rind.
After the cheese is brined, we’ll put them on the shelf, and that creates a, like, a hard skin around the outside, and that that will then become a natural rind, which protects the interior of the cheese.
John: And the reason the humidity is so critical is if it gets too dry in the cave, the rind will crack and allow unwanted molds to get inside there.
And the only cheese we want to have be moldy on the inside is the blue cheese. And that one, we probe to allow the oxygen to get inside there. And then it’s also in a separate room. That’s in a separate cave. So that’s one of the three caves.
Erik: So you’ve got to keep it pretty precise there, it sounds like. Someone keeps an eye on that, I guess.
John: Very precise. Yes. In fact, that’s Jacob’s job. He does a really good job with monitoring that humidity and the temperatures in there.
The Milk
Erik: Where does the milk come from, and what kind of milk do you guys use? It’s not all cow milk, is it?
John: That is correct. The cow milk comes from our herd here on the farm. The sheep milk comes from our daughter Sadie and her husband Sam. And then the goat milk comes from another Amish farm family, Henry and Ruta Wengerd.
It really is our mission, is to keep families on the farm. We do what we can to create a market for these farm families.
Family
Erik: And you’re also working with, at least one family member, with your daughter?
John: That is correct. And then our son John is quite involved in the business as well, including quality control and shipping. Our son Jacob is involved in order fulfillment, and then my wife, Anna Mary, makes the fudge, the apple butter.
My niece, Linda, makes the jellies. Then we also have several other children who have been involved, particularly seasonally.
Erik: Sounds like it’s pretty useful to have a big family then.
John: [laughing] Well, there are some advantages. That is correct. And we’ve been blessed. We’ve been really blessed with some really nice children.
Favorite Cheeses
John: The most popular one really is the Mountain Valley Sharp Cheddar. That’s our aged cheddar that we age for three and a half years.
Erik: I had it. I think yeah. Tasty.
John: That’s years. Three and a half years. That’s a that’s a long time. Yes. It is. And it’s you know, there’s a lot of challenges with trying to guess what you’ll need three and a half years down the road.
John: In the gift baskets, a very popular gift cheese is the Old German Weissa Kase. That means “old German white cheese”, and that’s a very popular gift cheese. It’s a nice, creamy – has a creamy mouthfeel, a bit of a tang. It’s not intimidating, and it’s not super assertive.
We do have some that are pretty intense, but the people who buy those perhaps have tasted them before, are familiar with the style and know what they’re getting.
We’re not McDonald’s in any way. This is a handmade artisanal product, so you have some variation batch to batch. But we work hard to make sure that the variation isn’t too great, because the American palate really expects that one experience will be very similar to the next.
John: About 15 years ago, we started putting these in gift assortments. So in addition to making these cheeses and selling, to restaurants and wineries, we now also do gift baskets that we ship nationwide.
We have quite a group of people who have learned to appreciate the value in having some really good cheese along with the condiments packed together in a in a gift assortment.
But here at the shop, we do quite a bit of tastings as well, where people come and they taste the samples and then make their selections, for whatever gifts they want.
But online, we also have a lot of descriptors. So the people who choose to buy online, they can they can see the descriptors quite easily of what to expect from this cheese.
Browse Goot Essa cheese assortments here.
Update: Find the Goot Essa contest winner & more here
For more, see:
Looking forward
My wife and I are looking forward to visiting your shop. So many cheeses to see, and cheese caves to explore and learn from.
Cheese basket give away
Good afternoon I just love this amish newsletter wish I could taste the good cheese that you are showing here. Hopefully, I will be a winner for the cheese basket. Please enter my name Lydia Hofer.
Thanks Lydia, and you are officially entered! Will draw the lucky winner tomorrow so be sure to check back 🙂
Looks beautiful
The cheeses look so delicious. I grew up and knew an Amish family in PA. I often wondered how to make the Amish cheese. I wish I had that talent. I have a lot of Amish cookbooks and love the recipes in them. I wish I could visit that store with my beautiful 90 years (and going strong) young mum, to see all that and always dreamed of taking her to Walnut Creek Ohio. We love cheese. I do not consider myself as her caregiver but, “housemate”. How many generations of family that has made these beautiful cheeses? Thank you for sharing their story! God Bless
I hope I win some Goot Essa.
Thank you for the interesting article and beautiful photographs. I enjoyed reading all the details about where Goot Essa’s cheese comes from. I’m so glad it is from your family cows and sheep (and your neighbor’s.) Good to know all the time, knowledge, resources and care that go into making the cheese. Thank you for taking such good care of the animals that provide for our tastebuds and nutrition.
Amish Cheese
I enjoy the newsletter. Love Amish cheese. I buy it in the local grocery store here in Iowa.
I appreciate it Roy. Kalona and Bloomfield communities were among the first Amish places I ever visited, so Iowa has a special spot in my book 🙂
This is amazing
Hi , This is amazing.I love to learn all about the process.And I love to know what they go through.And just to make the cheese.They go through a lot and it’s amazing, And it’s wonderful that they can make it such a family affair. Where it’s everybody’s job. Not just one person’s job and I love how they keep it small farm and it’s great that they have the shop open. So people can taste the cheese an the products. And I really hope that I win. And I would love to read more articles like this in the future.
Thank you and merry
Great cheese!
A friend and colleague has gifted me Goot Essa cheeses twice now and I love them! A free basket would be lovely for the holidays. 🙂
Goot Essa!
Thank you for this article it was great! God bless you all and Merry Christmas!!!
Mr.
Wow,this article is very informative and really makes one want to try these cheeses
Thank you too and Merry Christmas!
Amish blessings
I have so much respect for the hard work ethic and many talents the Amish teach their children and share with their community and the “English”. Thank you. Blessings to all!
Cheese basket giveaway
The box looks real nice, and the article about the cheese was a nice read. Thank you for the info.
Thanks
To live a full life, we must learn and appreciate the lives of others.
Cheese Giveaway
Your cheeses sound delicious! I would rather support a small family owned business that a big corporation..
GOOT ESSA CHEESE
I ABSOLUTELY love this news letter, and everything that is shared. I am almost 86 years old, raised Amish and thought I knew everything about cheese, until I found this site. I hope I can win some of the awesome chessess you are talking about.
VERNON Mullet
Casa Grande AZ
Thank you Vernon so kind! And glad that this helped expand your cheese knowledge 🙂
Good Essa cheese
A very good article. I love the fact that Good Essa is completely family run.
Please please cheese
I’m actually a vegan but desperately want this cheese because I know Amish farmers take good care of their cows. I will share with my entire building.
Good Essa
I’d love to try this cheese!
Cheese is GREAT
Any cheese is good. I’m always looking for a new cheese that I haven’t had before. I want to try Limburger, but my grocery store does not carry it. I want to see if it smells as bad as everyone says it does!
Say Cheese :)
We would love to receive this gift, if possible. Times have been so difficult as of late and we are holding on with only faith and love at this point. Winning would be a lovely surprise and great gift for my cheese-crazy husband. We live near the Amish community in Ethridge, TN and are very respectful and interested in their way of life. Thank you for your time and all you do!
Cheese Lover
I love cheese, and found rhe article very informative and interesting.
A Cheese Adventure
We like experiencing new to us and trying new cheese. This would be a true win. Thank you very much.
Goot Essa Cheese
I enjoy reading book series of the Amish. The authors are very good writers. I love to read about how they work so hard outdoors and indoors. I’ve always wanted to go visit when some of the Amish live but never have. I love to watch stories of them .
goot essa cheese
we would so love to try these delicious looking cheeses. and i’m very excited to see that i can now go directly to their website (for some reason it said my country wasn’t allowed).
thanks for all the wonderfully informative email newsletters too.
i miss living near the Amish!
Goot Essa
Love a good cheese and have heard some good things about Goot Essa.
Cheese is good!!!!!
A day without cheese is like a day without sunshine!
Enjoy your articles
I always look forward to receiving your email. I truly enjoy the articles you publish on this email. I would truly love to try the cheeses.
I appreciate that Victoria more than you might imagine! Thanks and I hope you get the chance to try some of these cheeses
Never tried Amish cheese before.Would like to try Amish cheese.
Your cheeses sound wonderful.
CheeseGiveaway
I love your page and numerous articles. The cheese looks delicious
Goot Essa - cheese giveaway
Ya, sure – I know my husband would love to “win” your cheese giveaway basket! He is German and would especially love to taste the Old German Weissa. We buy Amish cheese whenever we go over Cashton, WI. area and stock up; but they DO NOT have anything like this cheese you have pictured (mouth-watering). We are up north, WI. where it’s predicted to be single digits tomorrow and below zero in the eve.
Thank you for all you do.
Love our Amish cheeses!
We lived in So. Indiana for several years and we bought Amish cheese at a store in Davies County. They carried a lot of different kinds, along with other Amish products. We moved away a few years ago and I miss those cheeses! We are now in NW Indiana and I would have to go to Amish land to our East, which for us is quite a drive, to get good cheese, which I assume they sell there. There are always unusual flavors at the store we used to shop at. Yummy just thinking about it.
Cheese Give Away
Erik is so informative and distinguishes the differences of Amish in different districts and states. Even cheese is stored in caves in PA.
Any cheese sounds great. Vella essa some goot stuff.
Thank you Karen, all of you are really making me feel good in these comments! I didn’t expect to get an early Christmas present here 🙂
Wonderful Stuff
Love Essa cheese and jellies and reading about them!
Thank you
Eric, thank you I love reading about the Amish in all of your articles! I’m sure the cheese is amazing also. 🙂
Big thank you Kathy!
Amish lover
Love all of these recipes I get from the Amish community. They are very delicious and made from scratch. The recipes are made with love and hard work in every bite. They take dedication to concentrate and make these recipes for us so I am grateful for that.
I love Amish cheese is the best I have ever tasted
Your cheeses look awesome I love sharp cheddar
My mother was Amish from Wooster Ohio
I love the cheese there and the time I got to spend on the Family Farm
I would love to win the cheese box
This article was very interesting. I love to read anything concerning the Amish. We visit Mt Hope about 4 times a month and always come home with a wonderful selection of cheese. I just had 6 kitchen chairs made by a wonderful Amish woodworker. I would love to win this prize. Thank you
Love visiting that community and I’m overdue for a visit back! Must be great to be close enough to visit so often 🙂
It's the Best
We never leave any Amish community without buying a selection of cheeses and curds (and some jams, fry pies and Amish peanut butter). I love buying local and the flavors confirm why.
Yummy!!
I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the Guggisberg Cheese Company in Millersburg, OH and we found it amazing!! Thank you for introducing us to the Goot Essa Cheese Company and I am looking forward to learning more about the company and finding some of this cheese!!
All I can say is I love cheese and I especially love apple butter. What a wonderful assortment of goodies from Good Essa Cheese!
Cheese giveaway
Good day
We would like to be entered in the drawing please. Thank you
Linda Porter
Natural
I try to stick to whole foods, and naturally made foods. I really need to try this cheese!
Love the caves
Cheese caves are such a good idea. Low tech idea with high tech monitoring. Hopefully I can win the basket and try this cave cheese!
Amish Cheese Giveaway
AMAZING! The amount of dedication, workmanship and old world charm that goes into this cheese making operation is a lost art! Yum, would love to win some!!
Goot Essa Kase
I have never had their cheese, but I expect it to be good. Hand crafted.
I have tried a very small producer among the plain people called “Homestead” cheese. Also had some goat cheese from Byler Goat Dairy in Belleville, PA.
Great cheese
Erik, merry Christmas. I’ve tried Goot Essa cheese after your first video speaking on the subject. Their cheddar is fantastic. Thank for sharing your knowledge and tasty treats.
Awesome to hear that Barbara. I know that cheddar is good. One of my favorites is the Butta Schaf. Very distinct cheese. Merry Christmas to you too!
Got Essa Cheese Giveaway
Cheese please… Wonderful article, I thoroughly enjoyed reading of your family business. All your cheeses and products look wonderful.
Very interesting.