Spring is sprung when fresh goats cheese appears. Like daffodils and asparagus, hand-crafted goats cheese is a seasonal wonder.

For me it’s a harbinger of summer and my delivery of Nieuwenhuis goats cheese brought a sense of seasons and change. I ordered them online on a dreary Wellington bus commute and I loved that I could summon up Spring with a few clicks.

Like Spring weather goats cheese can take many guises and I was thrilled with my selection.

Bright and clear, Cloud, their fresh goats cheese is like those earliest days of spring. Sunlight filtered over snow drops and new growth. Clean and white and somehow healing in its innocent simplicity, yet with just enough earthy white pepper to make it interesting.

Poukawa Fog is a stunner with its rind of black ash, dusted with snowy white. Sweet and lightly aged, this is a balanced cheese with notes of broccoli and hazelnut and a darkening black pepper piquancy.

And then onto the Oma,. Oh my, the most surprising, grandmother of a cheese. Like Spring she looks back to the memory of summer with her creamy aged centre. Yet her salted caramel nuttiness feels somehow exiting as she looks forward to the sun drenched days of Summer ahead.

Keep an eye out for the goats cheeses that’ve been missing for a while my friends. They are one of the few Spring-time seasonal delights we have to remind us how reliant on the seasons we are. And for that, I am grateful.

Check out their online store.