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With the school year now under way, this week brings an opportunity to do a little cheese homework. Use those rusty "compare and contrast" skills when tasting two Gouda-style cheeses from Ewenity Dairy Co-Operative (pronounced 'unity') in Conn, Ont.

Both cheeses are made using the same process. The difference is that the Eweda, distinguished by a yellow wax rind, is made from pasteurized sheep's milk and aged four months, while Eweda Cru, in its green wax rind, is made from raw sheep's milk and aged a minimum of nine months.

Aside from personal preference, it would be difficult to choose the better cheese. You could present just these two on a cheese board and still provide your guests with a wide range of flavour.

The Eweda is pale cream in colour and has a soft texture that is velvety on the tongue. It displays the qualities of a younger cheese in its tangy, sour cream tartness, which mingles with the sweetness typical of sheep's milk. The older Eweda Cru is a deeper gold in tone, the texture is more firm, supple and slightly crumbly. It is more intense, having developed a nutty, meaty flavour and a longer, richer finish. The fruitiness is more rounded - reflecting a riper sweetness than that of Eweda.

The Ewenity Dairy Co-Op was founded in 2001 with five members. Their philosophy is a belief that viability and sustainability are the backbone of rural communities. The sheep are grazed on grass in the summer and fed haylage during the winters (bales of young alfalfa grass cut early in its growth, when it is most nutritious, and stored for winter).

Today only two of the co-op's founding members are left - cheese maker Elisabeth Bzicot and her husband, Eric, with the remainder of the group fluctuating between seven and eight farmers. The co-op is responsible for the milk buying, and the Bzicot family, owners of Best Baa Farm, use this milk to make cheese. Ms. Bzicot began her foray into cheese making through yogurt. In early days, she remembers driving into Toronto once a month carrying just two cardboard boxes of yogurt to sell to Whole Foods and the Big Carrot.

The Eweda was born in 2002, when the family realized they needed a firm cheese that could outlast their yogurt and fresh cheeses. They used a Gouda recipe and combined it with their sheep's milk (thus the name), and waited with great anticipation to try the first batch. After two months of aging, the first wheel was cut to great disappointment. The flavour had not yet properly developed. Further trial and error found four months to be ideal. Eweda Cru followed.

Today, both cheeses set a high standard of quality. The Bzicot family's goal is to turn out products comparable to European cheeses.

"We don't take short cuts," says Ms. Bzicot. "We look after the animals well, our land well, and we give our farmers a good return on their milk."

The results speak for themselves.

*****

On the block

Cheese Eweda and Eweda Cru

Producer Ewenity Dairy Co-Operative and Best Baa Farm

Origin Conn, Ont.

Cheese maker Elisabeth Bzicot

Milk Raw and pasteurized sheep

Type Semi-firm, Gouda-style sheep's milk cheese, wax rind

Food match Great on a cheeseboard, in sandwiches

or shaved onto a salad.

Distributor Provincial Fine Foods or direct from ewenity.com

Availability

Toronto: Whole Foods, Cheese Boutique, Marcket Fine Foods,

St. Lawrence Market, Dufferin Grove Market

Caledon East: Einhorn Fine Food and Catering

Niagra-on-the-Lake: Cheese Pairings

Meaford: Hundred Mile Market

Beppi's wine matches

Plenty of possibilities for matching wines here. A top pick would be pinot gris, particularly an opulent style from the Alsace region of France. A pinot gris from British Columbia would also be a good choice. Dry riesling or unoaked chardonnay from Ontario could work, too. The older, nutty Eweda Cru might be more enjoyable with a full-bodied red. Consider a tempranillo from Spain or a Bordeaux-style red such as cabernet sauvignon or meritage.