By Gordon Edgar—
October is when things start to get real again as a cheesemonger. The weather starts to cool and people start looking for cheese for more than picnics and caprese salad. Seasonal cheeses are starting to trickle in before the flood of them that arrives in November. The food-season pre-orders have been placed and the distributors are looking to empty their warehouses before the containers of holiday cheese arrive.
So, what should you be looking for as a cheese eater? Here are my recommendations for this month.
Rogue River Blue
This is the most expensive cheese we carry and the only American cheese to win Best of Show at the World Cheese Awards. It is an amazing blue cheese wrapped by hand in a pear-brandy-soaked grape leaf. It is one of the best cheeses this country has ever produced, and is the first of the fall/winter seasonals to arrive—it shows up on the equinox—and we sell it until it’s gone. We have about thirty wheels tucked away so we will have it for a minute.
Halloween Cheese!
Ok, this isn’t a traditional thing, I admit, I scoffed at the Halloween cheeses a few years ago when people started making them. But, I have to admit, the trend is kind of fun. We have three Halloween cheeses in the store this month. Petit Boo from Marin French Cheese Company up north and Moses Reaper from Jasper Hill in Vermont are both soft-ripened cheeses with annatto and ash added to make them black on the outside and orange and spooky on the inside. Then we have the Vampire Hunter Raclette from Switzerland that is covered in black garlic. Oooooh, scary!
Wyke’s Cheddar
This has been our most popular sample table cheese all year and we have been selling upwards of forty pounds a day on the weekends. At fifteen months aged, this cheddar is a crowd pleaser: not too crumbly, and it is sharp, nutty, and a little sweet without losing its character. If you have been missing out, now you know. This may be the cheddar you didn’t know you were looking for.
Cave Dweller
We have carried a lot of Firefly Farms goat cheese over the years, but they have mostly been soft-ripened ones like the Merry Goat Round brie and its spruce-barked sibling. However, we have been loving this aged goat one recently. It has big flavor and is fruity, earthy, and complex. You don’t see this age and complexity in goat cheese too often. If you love goat cheese, you have to try this one.
Chebris
Do you like a Basque sheep cheese like Ossau-Iraty or P’tit Basque? Well, this is even better and more interesting. It is a Basque cheese that combines goat and sheep milk (CHEvre and BRebIS = Chebris). This cheese is often available, but we only bring it in when it’s at its best, which is right now.
Deals!
Per the aforementioned, cheese distributors are clearing out their warehouses right now to make room for incoming holiday cheese. That may sound car-salesman-y, but it’s true. Holiday cheese is traveling to the states on ships at this very moment! Check out the awesome deals happening now.
North Sea
This is a Danish cheese that is aged 30 weeks and is super tasty, nutty, and semi-soft. We got this at a steal of a price, and it’s even better than I thought it would be. It is perfect for melting on those foggy nights. We also should be getting in the more-aged version called Lighthouse later this month as well, and it will additionally be on sale.
Hornkuhkäse
This has been a favorite of ours for years but it still seems like a secret somehow. This is a Swiss cheese but we are still managing a good price on it. It is a smelly and strong cheese and a great melter if you want some punch and onion-y-ness in your grilled cheese, casserole, or on your potato. Hornkuhkäse means the milkers for this cheese get to keep their horns.
Point Reyes Brie and Truffle Brie
These two North Bay Beauties will not be on sale until October 14 when a new shipment is scheduled to arrive, but you should mark that on your calendar. They will be offered at a great price and we only have 50 cases of each. That quantity should last until the end of October, but you never know.
Gordon Edgar loves cheese and worker co-ops and has been combining these infatuations as the cheese buyer for Rainbow Grocery Cooperative since 1994. He is Vice Chair of the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition Committee and is a member of the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. Edgar has written two books on cheese—”Cheesemonger” (2010) and “Cheddar” (2015)—and lives in San Francisco with his adorable white mini schnauzer named Fillmore Grumble. He writes about grief, and sometimes cheese, at https://bit.ly/42IwYf0
Over the Rainbow Cheese Counter
Published on October 8, 2026
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