Milam Dairy Road and Graham Dairy Road, two busy urban thoroughfares in Miami-Dade County, are relics of a more rural past when several dairies flourished in the Miami area.
Today, most of south Florida’s milk and other dairy products come from far, far away – but recently a couple of local cheesemakers began to ply their craft. Both have Web sites and sell cheese from their sites, and both sell their products at area farmers’ markets.
Redland Mediterranean Organics
Redland Mediterranean Organics offers fresh goat-milk cheese and goat-milk ice cream. Vanilla and chocolate are available all year, and other flavors are seasonal, made with fresh locally grown fruit.
Owner Hani Khouri, a native of Lebanon, learned to make cheese from his mother, Margerite Khouri. “My mother used rennet to make her cheese. I do not. I use lemon juice or vinegar for my all-organic cheese,” he says.
Although they are new to the commercial food scene, the Khouris have lived in Miami-Dade County a long time. I first met Hani Khouri at farmers’ markets and food events. He raises his own goats, and buys goat milk from other local producers.
Mozzarita
Mozzarita is Italian-style cow’s-milk cheese made in Pompano Beach. Owner Vito Volpe was born in Bari Puglia, Italy. He lived for a while in New York before moving to South Florida.
Volpe learned cheesemaking from his Italian family. “Everyone in my small hometown made cheese,” he says. “I made cheese for years in Italy before moving in 1972 to Long Island.”
I learned about Volpe’s cheese from a vendor who sells it at the seasonal Upper East Side Market in Legion Memorial Park on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. It is also available at Whole Foods Market and Gardner’s Market, and Volpe supplies it to various high-end restaurants in South Florida.
Volpe started in South Florida as an importer of quality Italian food products, including olive oil, which he still offers through his import-export company, Norba Import. He has combined his Norba Import and Mozzarita cheese offerings on a new Web site.
Volpe makes several kinds of cheese. “I buy milk from a Tampa dairy farm in five-gallon bags that are delivered in a cradle,” he says. “Currently we are making about 2,500 gallons a week of mozzarella cheese. We hope to make a lot more. First we make curds, and from the curds we process the mozzarella in different shapes.”
Fresh ricotta cheese. © Mozzarita.
Mozzarita products
The Mozzarita product line includes:
• Fir di latte, made from fresh pasteurized cow's milk in one-pound balls. It is wrapped in plastic or put in containers with water.
• Fior di latte (smoked), also known as provola.
• Ovolini, egg-sized fresh mozzarella, sold with three five-ounce balls in a container with water.
• Handmade trecce braid, a braided mozzarella cheese.
• Handmade nodini knots with a little twist.
• Scamorza dry aged mozzarella. Aging times vary. This cheese hangs like provolone.
• Fresh ricotta cheese
• Ciliegine cherry, cherry sized pieces of mozzarella cheese used in salads.
• Sfoglia di mozzarella, round slices of mozzarella cheese often served with slices of tomatoes.
• Bocconcini, small balls of mozzarella cheese.
• Burrata cheese, fresh flat pieces like a pizza of mozzarella cheese filled with shredded mozzarella cheese, buttermilk, and cream. “We are the only company in the U.S. to make this cheese in this way,” says Volpe. “We make this cheese for restaurants and hotels. This cheese is sold in a container with water. You cut it in half and serve it with a little olive oil on top.”
• Mozzarella di bufala, mozzarella cheese made with buffalo milk.
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