T R AV E L 202 2 culturecheesemag.com 45
"T
here are producers here creating
cheeses that can stand up against
the best in the country," Kate
Arding asserts from behind a
butcher-block countertop stacked
with multi-hued wheels and wedges.
Those words carry weight coming
from Arding, who began her storied career at
Neal's Yard Dairy in London before helping
to establish Cowgirl Creamery in California
and co-founding this magazine in 2008.
That "here" she's referring to is the bucolic
eastern region of New York state, from
Hudson Valley to the Adirondack Mountains.
It's mid-July, when my wife, Laura, and I
bump into Arding at the reopening of her
and Mona Talbott's eponymously named
temple to fromage and charcuterie—Talbott
& Arding. We've landed to gawk at the duo's
cavernous new location on Allen Street in
Hudson, NY, during one of our weekend
summer escapes from New York City.
We're no strangers to the store's former
location on Warren Street, a landmark of
cheese and the regional bounty in Hudson
since 2014. Every northerly trip for us includes
a stop to pick up decadent picnic provisions.
Brad Daschbach, the shop's head of cheese
and charcuterie, sidles around the counter to
join us. Daschbach, like so many others who
find themselves in upstate New York, moved
here to be closer to the source of production
and makers. A native of Louisiana, the self-
taught cheesemonger worked his way from
the specialty department at Whole Foods to
general manager at the Warehouse District
location of St. James Cheese Company in New
Orleans before landing at Talbott & Arding.
"Starting out as a cheesemonger, you can
have access quickly to some of the world's
finest cheeses," notes Daschbach. "You
can train your palate far quicker than a
sommelier might be able to with wine."
And so, I implore both of them: where
could a budding turophile such as myself go
to taste the very best of what this pastoral
region of the country has to offer?
The herd of goats at
Asgaard Farm
