This is great cheese! I bought it at Provenance Food & Wine, a little wine and specialty food shop in Logan Square. They had both a spring cheddar and a fall cheddar. I asked the guy working in the shop what the difference was and he said that depending on when the cheese is made it will taste different because the cows have been grazing on different kinds of grasses and stuff depending on the season. Sure enough, from the Otter Creek Organic Farm site:
Each season’s cheddar has a unique flavor and fat content—they are all very different.
In the spring, the herd is grazed on pastures of clover, rye and young grasses; in Summer, the pasture is full of orchard grass, young corn, and sorghum. Fall brings mature rye, alfalfa, and clover. In Winter, the pasture is full of snow, so the herd eats sileage and bailage, made of fermented alfalfa and grasses cut from the farm’s pastures.
It’s not just the feed—the milk changes in fat content and hormones based on the season: lower fat in the warmer months, and higher fat in colder months.
Oh, and the farm where this cheese is made is located in WI!