Every Saturday morning, Wanda Barras treks from St. Martinville to downtown Baton Rouge with a load of fresh goat cheese. It’s from her farm, Belle Ecorce Farms, and she sells her varieties—interesting takes on aged, hard cheeses, feta and a delicious, creamy chvre—at the Red Stick Farmers Market.
Those disks, logs and spreads of fresh artisan chvre sell the fastest at the market, thanks to the mild flavor and grassiness of the goat’s milk she produces on the farm. Jolie’s Louisiana Bistro in Lafayette and John Besh’s August in New Orleans use Belle corce cheeses in their dishes. So does Juban’s here in the Capital City.
Barras flavors some of her cheese spreads with fruits like raspberry, cranberry and Satsuma. Right now, farmers market regulars seek out her goat cheese spread studded with bits of preserved figs, which are currently in season. A four-ounce container of the sweet spread sells for around $5.
