
Louella Hill of Ballerino Creamery in Staunton.
Ballerino Creamery brings old world style to the market.
Cheesemaking is a slow dance between milk and time. Ballerino Creamery, the Shenandoah Valley’s newest cheesemaker, is choreographing a routine using locally sourced, grass-fed, and pasture-based milk to create mold-ripened, small-format cheeses that hearken back to villages in Europe. Bloomy-rind bries like Can Do, a salty feta-style called Etta, and a big, mushroomy, washed-rind Dearborn are recurring favorites on a rotating menu.

Ballerino Creamery’s Hurry Up cheese.
Ballerino founder and cheesemaker Louella Hill has been part of the cheese world for the better part of two decades, making, teaching, illustrating, and writing about the subject. A few years after moving to Staunton, Hill found an old creamery just blocks from her house and Ballerino was born. “I deeply appreciate the art and science of ancient forms of food preservation, and I like to think about the world without plastic, as it once was, and the ways that we were able to save food from the harvest into the winter,” says Hill. “Cheese is a perfect manifestation of that craft.”
Starting this fall, Ballerino will reintroduce its popular holiday boxes, which combine a selection of cheeses and local accoutrements, available online and at the Staunton Local Drive-Thru Market and the South of the James Farmers’ Market in Richmond. “Food is an exquisite way to show your love for someone,” says Hill. “This is the perfect gift for someone who appreciates food and flavor.”
This article originally appeared in our October 2020 issue.