A Visit To An Amish Cheese Maker (29 Photos)

This one was fun. Here are some photos from my trip to Amish cheese maker Goot Essa last year.

Together with my friend Ben Riehl, we made the 2.5-hour drive up from Lancaster County last December. I’ve been saving these photos for a post.

To get there, we traveled through several central PA valleys which have Amish populations. This is a shot taken on the way.

The valleys are beautiful and have well-established Amish populations. In Penns Valley, we stopped at Amish farm stand Spring Bank Acres, a visit I covered on a previous post.

Goot Essa is located in Nittany Valley, aka “Happy Valley”. Owner John Esh shared the story of his community and the neighboring valleys, and a lot more, in this interview we did last year:

Here we are in John’s community, almost arriving to Goot Essa.

Goot Essa is located pretty far back down a lane in the valley. But there are helpful signs along the way.

Almost there.

When we arrived John warmly greeted us – and immediately treated us to a cheese tasting in the on-premises store. This is apparently the standard thing if you visit. I was all in!

This board suggests some nice cheese/condiment pairings:

John also helped us with his own recommendations.

We tried just about everything.

It was a lot of fun going down the line testing the different cheeses. It really makes you realize how much flavor range there is in cheese.

John helpfully pointed out different flavor notes with descriptive language that captured what we were tasting. He really knows his stuff.

Apple butter, jam, and mustard are among the pairings.

In this photo you can see:

• Der Weichen Gehl (Camembert style)
• Der Vauden (Swiss)
• Der Alpen Kase (Hard Alpine style
• Der Smoked Alpen Kase
• Mountain Home Woodsmoked Cheddar
• Garden Pepper Jack

One of my favorites is called Butta Schaf. It is actually a sheep’s cheese, but doesn’t really taste like it. The Goot Essa description does it more justice than I ever could:

Goot Essa Butta Schaf Cheese is another all-natural gourmet cheese produced from raw sheep milk. This traditional Amish recipe is an artisanal, full-bodied hard cheese of the pecorino style with hints of earth tones. The taste hints of acorns with a natural pecorino bite. 

I think I what I most enjoy about this one is that “natural pecorino bite.”

The shop has all sizes of gift baskets…

As well as single packs of cheese and condiments.

And they also do subscriptions.

From the store, you can also see through a window into the cheese-making facilities.

Above the window you see the many varieties categorized by type:

John gave us a tour of the cheese-making area as well, explaining in detail the factors including pH and other variants that go into making cheese.

To me the process sounded like something between “art and science”.

Here’s a view from the area where they prep orders. Lovely view out that window.

John also took us into the cheese caves, where the cheeses are aged.

I’m going to share most of those photos on another post. But here’s a shot of Ben inside one of the caves, with the many shelves laden with cheese wheels.

And here is the outside of the store as we were leaving.

And a beautiful sunset in the valley.

Goot Essa advertises with us each year, and their gift baskets are great for the holidays.

They do well for a Thanksgiving dinner spread, or for Christmas guests, or as gifts for friends and loved ones.

You can check out all the gift baskets here. They also have cheese subscription plans.

Stay tuned for our next Goot Essa post, giving a further look inside the cheese caves – as well as John’s top 10 cheese pairings.

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