Luna Cheese

Luna cheese

If you've ever wondered what the moon would taste like if it were made of cheese, just ask Ron Henningfeld of Hill Valley Dairy. He invented Luna cheese – a cross between gouda and Alpine-style cheese – precisely to answer that question. Salty and sweet, creamy and tangy, with nutty notes and earthy aromas, Luna cheese has cheese lovers and discerning judges everywhere over the moon about the flavor and texture of this new variety. Made solely with milk from his family's farm, Luna cheese debuted in 2020 and won Third Place in the 2022 World Championship Cheese Contest.

Hill Valley Dairy

Ron and his wife Josie founded Hill Valley Dairy in 2016 as a very small business, making cheese one day a week at Clock Shadow Creamery and hauling it back to their farm for aging, cutting, and packaging. Having worked at award-winning Wisconsin creameries like Uplands, Cedar Grove, and Clock Shadow, Ron developed a passion for a bottom-up, milk-to-market operation that connects local farms and locally made products to local communities. That's why, despite the company's success, most of its cheese is still sold directly to consumers at farmers' markets, local restaurants, and local shops.

Wisconsin Cheese

Hill Valley Dairy's extraordinary passion and innovation for cheesemaking is shared by cheesemakers throughout Wisconsin. It's why we've become the center of the cheese universe, producing more than 600 varieties, styles, and types of cheese – and winning more awards for it than any other state or country. Along with Luna cheese, you'll find all sorts of remarkable cheeses in our grocery aisles, including varieties like Ewe Calf to be Kidding, the first triple-crème blue cheese made in America. We're also home to new cheeses like Roth Cheese's Pavino, a wash-rind, Alpine-style variety, and Dunbarton Blue, a cross between blue cheese and aged white cheddar. We still produce contemporary versions of time-honored classics like creamy butterkäse-style cheese, and fresh mozzarella ciliegine – little cherry-sized balls of delicate, fresh, milky goodness.

All about Luna cheese

How Luna cheese is made

Luna is a blended cheese made using cultures and production methods of both gouda and Alpine-style cheeses. Starting with fresh milk from the family farm, Hill Valley Dairy cheesemakers warm the milk before adding the cultures, or microorganisms, that have been specially chosen to create this stellar cheese. After the milk has been cultured for an hour, rennet is added to create curd, which is cut into quarter-inch cubes to release moisture or whey. The curd is stirred, salted, and pressed into forms for aging in a cave for six months or more.

Milk from a reliable source

The milk for Luna and all Hill Valley Dairy cheeses comes from Romari Farm, the family farm just up the road outside of Troy, Wisconsin, where Ron grew up. Today, the 240-acre property and the herd of 65 cows are managed by his brother Frank, who delivers 500 gallons of milk each week to Hill Valley Dairy. This arrangement allows Ron to track everything about the milk, from the cows that produce it to what they're eating and how they're treated. The high quality of Romari Farm's milk produces cheese with outstanding flavor.

What to eat and drink with Luna cheese

Like all Hill Valley Dairy cheeses, Luna is a fun and flavorful variety that pairs easily with beverages, adds interest in the kitchen, and ups the game of any cheese board or grazing table.

With beverages, the complex flavors of Luna cheese are best matched by bolder wines like malbec or cabernet sauvignon, and by the rich aroma of black coffee. In the kitchen, Luna brings boundless flavor to a grilled cheese sandwich, and its excellent melting properties make it a natural for fondue. On a cheese board, Luna is well-complemented by dark chocolate, dried fruits, and fresh raspberries or blueberries.