Foin-de-Grèves has a brownish rind and a smooth and firm ochre-coloured interior. It features vegetal and floral aromas and rich buttery and herbal flavours. It has a lingering taste with a finely spicy nutty finish.

This cheese bears the name of the marsh hay that grows on the floodplains of the St. Lawrence River: Foin de Grèves. Naturally fertilized by the deposits left by the tides, this hay used to be collected at the end of the harvest and given to ruminants.

The milk used to make Foin-de-Grèves comes exclusively from the ewe herd of the Mafix farm, located near the Fromagerie des Grondines.

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.