Clos des Roches has a cream-coloured firm interior dotted with holes. It is a farm cheese with fruity, floral and salty notes that become slightly spicy with ripening.

Certified organic, Clos des Roches is made with milk from the farm’s hay and grain-fed herd. Introduced in 2012, its name refers to farmers’ fields from which rocks must be removed each spring.

Cheesemaker

Fromagerie des Grondines was inaugurated in 2007 at the AACAT farm, owned by Charles Trottier and Guylaine Rivard. The couple had long dreamed of making cheese to take advantage of the milk from their Brown Swiss dairy herd. The dream started taking shape in 2004, when the farmers joined forces with their friend and amateur cheesemaker Louis Arseneault. A project manager in Montreal at the time, Mr. Arseneault, who was already making cheese in the basement of his ancestral home in Grondines, decided to leave the city and devote himself to the project. For a few years the three partners tinkered with their product, got trained in cheesemaking techniques, enlisted the help of cheese consultants, and, more importantly, practised their new passion, acquiring most of their current knowledge by trial and error.