About
Get to know
Perrystead Dairy is an urban Philadelphia creamery. We blend traditional techniques with modern implements in the pursuit of all-new American original cheeses. Our spectacular grass-fed milk comes from caring local Pennsylvania family farmers.
Land, Animal, Human
Great cheese can only be made with perfect milk, and Pennsylvania's long green season, rich soil, plentiful minerals and water sources galore -made it ideal resource of perfect milk. It has been home for family dairies for centuries.
Culturing and aging milk bring forward countless compounds that make up complex flavors, aromas and textures in cheese. Nutrients that will end up feeding us must first feed a succession of live cultures that develop the product. On the other hand, inferior milk will render obvious product deficits. This is why we select milk from small family farms that encourage free roaming and grass feeding, caring husbandry and progressive regenerative land management whenever possible. By creating cheese that expresses the quality of such milk, we respect the product, animal, land and farmer. We share the rewards with farmers by paying sustainable far-above-market premiums for their incredible milk.
Cheese Vision
7 millenia and thousands of cheeses, from spreadable and fresh, to hard aged stuff, melty, funky or blue, all cheese share a single principle: Gather the solids out of the milk and turn them into food. Small variations to the same idea had resulted in an endlessly diverse food category. These variations have always been the product of nature's conditions and human circumstances.
We believe that we are no different than those who came before us. To that extent, making cheese that is showcases our local conditions, our corner of the American melting pot, and the tools at our disposal at this time in history is just tradition. Sure, we too can make Cheddar, Chèvre, or Brie, but even with a catchy
Meet Your Maker
Yoav Perry has been making cheese for over 15 years, many of which spent consulting on cheese projects to other cheesemakers, farmers and chefs, as well as working with distributors, importers, and retailers of other specialty foods.
Prior to embarking on his own creamery, he operated a company that imported and supplied cheesemaking tooling and ingredients to hundreds of small-scale producers in over 30 countries. Yoav is regarded in the industry for his knowledge of enzymes, bacterial cultures, production and aging methods. He also contributed content and was featured in many publications such as The Daily Mail, Quarz, Culture Magazibe, The Oxford Companion to Cheese, Insider, Modern Farmer and more. A life-long passionate cook and fermenter, prior to going into dairy Mr Perry spent a long career in design and brand development for tech startups in New York. Today, he applies design disciplines to cheesemaking in his obsessive pursuit to define American Original cheese.
