Cheese: Historical Overview

There is no evidence that any of the Native American tribes milked animals. In 1611, “sixe good shippes, men, provisions and cattle” arrived to replenish the Jamestown, Virginia, colony, which had been chartered in 1606. Farther north the Massachusetts colonists were joined in 1623 by the ship Anne, which contained both goats and cattle. It is unlikely that any of the “Holland Cheeses” listed as provisions on the Mayflower remained when the ship reached shore, but it is purported that fresh goat and cow cheeses were made early in Plymouth Plantation.