Mt. Eitan's Ady
A Sonoma County Feta That Rivals the Best in Greece
John and I had the opportunity to go the Greek island of Lesvos last year. We loved the simplicity of the food in the restaurants because the focus was on the purity of the ingredients and the comfort of their food culture, rather than a chef’s ego on the plate. What I mean by that is that an octopus dish was a simply presented charred leg, with lemon and olives. The dishes were not laboriously plated.
As husband-and-wife chefs, if we come across a dish we like while eating out, we go home and attempt to re-create it in some way. My favorite dish was a filo-wrapped feta drizzled with honey and sesame seeds. As we were enamored with the Greek salad at every restaurant we visited, I lamented that we could not make this back at home because we did not have access to this kind of feta in California.
Then, after we got home, while wandering through the Saturday Santa Rosa Farmers’ Market with my mom I came across Mt. Eitan cheeses and maker Omer Seltzer. After tasting a few, I was stopped in my tracks by the Ady, Seltzer’s version of Bulgarian feta. It was so clean, ethereal, uplifting, and spoke of sense of place: Sonoma County. His cheeses were remarkably different and exactly what I was looking for! I took some home and made this dish: Lesvos salad, filo-wrapped feta, sesame honey gastrique (at right).
Omer Seltzer is the cheesemaker behind Mt. Eitan cheeses, started in 2023. He makes semi-firm and soft ripened goat cheeses, some wrapped in grape leaves. He grew up on a goat farm in Israel in his family since the 1970s. He is an alumnus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and apprenticed at goat farms in Provence. Omer’s dedication to the sourcing of his milk—goat milk from Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol and jersey cow milk from Straus Family creamery—and focus on process are what make his cheeses so outstanding. He enjoys exploring how the changing seasons affect the milk and humidity affects the cheesemaking. He describes the Ady as a “showcase of Sonoma County’s heritage in artisan cheesemaking and the purity of the ingredients here.” I’m all about that savory tang!
Available at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol farmers’ markets and these specialty stores, among others: Bodega Country Store, La Bodega Sonoma Wine Shop, Wm Cofield Cheesemakers, Marla Bakery, Petaluma Market, West Marin Culture Shop, Rainbow Grocery and more.
