Civitello grew up learning how to make cheese from his grandfather, who in the 1920s kept a few goats in an abandoned lot when he first arrived to the United States from outside Naples, Italy. He grew up listening to his grandfather's stories, and after a successful stint as owner of a Boston record label he decided to try his hand at the old fashioned art of cheese-making.
With a basic understanding of the cheese making process, Civitello enrolled in an agricultural economics program and took advantage of internships in Italy where he spent three to four weeks with major cheese cooperatives in northern Italy such as Assiagio, Parmigiano Reggiano, Montasio, and Tallegio.
"In Italy the industrial production of milk still maintains its artisan edge," Civitello explained.
While in Italy he also worked on a small Alpine dairy farm near the Italian and Swiss borders where he led a herd of five cows and 50 goats into the mountains at heights ranging between 7,000 to 11,000 feet. Animals grazed on grasses rich with flowers and aromatic plants produce a special kind of milk. He spent several months living a rustic lifestyle and honing his skills as a cheese-maker.
At Sankow's farm, cows are grazed in the pastures. In the summertime the level of fat and protein in the milk decreases and produces almost fragrant milk with flowery notes. The milk that is produced in the summer is best suited to making harder cheeses such as "Pleasant Cow," "Abby," and "Pleasant Sun."
However, in the fall, cows slow down and become more sedentary in the cooler weather. They graze less on pasture grasses and depend more on feed. As a result, the protein level in the milk rises. This milk is best suited to making a softer cheese such as a Stracchino cheese. Artisan cheeses, like the ones produced by Sankow's farm, are special cheeses that can only be made from animals that graze on pastures.
It was Civitello's experience in the mountains of Italy and Switzerland that gave him the inspiration to try his hand at making "stracchino" cheese, known at Sankow's Farm as "stinky cheese." Stracchino means exhausted in Italian, and it is a cheese that has been made in Italy since the 12th century. In the late fall cows were herded down the mountain to escape the winter. These tired cows produced high quality milk with higher fat content which lent itself well to a softer style cheese.
Stracchino cheese is a semi-soft cheese with a milky flavor. The core of the cheese has an acidic tang, aromatic with a pungent smell. Suggestions include serving it as an antipasto, with Mortadella or eaten on it's own as a cheese course after dinner and before dessert. It should be served at room temperature.
"In America," Brian Civitello said, "few cheese makers and manufacturers make true raw milk cheeses." Civitello makes authentic Stracchino style cheese using the naturally occurring flora in the milk rather than the commercially available flora.
For Civitello, the "stinky cheese" made at Sankow's Farms is truly unique to this area as each region in the United States has its own micro climate where temperatures and seasons affect the grasses and pastures, and will impart a unique flavor to the cheese. Because Sankow's Farms is at sea level it is an ideal climate for making a Straccino style cheese. The mold that makes the rind of the cheese can only be grown at a certain ph level and altitude but Civitello has been successful in culturing and harvesting local natural yeast to make this specific cheese.
Sankow's Farms is a pasture based operation and animals are grass fed without the use of pesticides, hormones or herbicides. They don't claim to be 100 percent organic because the grain purchased in the winter cannot be verified as organic. Sankow's Farm produces pasteurized fresh cheeses, yoghurts, fetas and fresh soft cheeses, (soft cheeses are rolled in herbes de Provence, onion and chive and during the holidays, cranberry and pistachio), as well as raw sheep and cow milk cheeses, (aged a minimum of 60 days). Their "Pleasant Cow" was picked by "Saveur" magazine as one of the top 50 cheeses in the United States.
Cheeses are available for purchase at Sankow's Beaver Brook Farms located at 139 Beaver Brook Road, Lyme. 860- 434-2843. Their store hours are Monday - Sunday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. But please do not come after 4 p.m. because that's the time they reserve for feeding their own customers, the four-legged ones.