This story originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of Town&Gown magazine.
What began as an effort to keep Amish families on the farm has grown into a business that ships cheeses, jams and more, all made in Happy Valley with local milk and produce.
Just past Hublersburg, surrounded by farms and pastures, is Goot Essa. This business sells a variety of cave-aged, locally produced, all-natural cheeses.
Owner John Esh says Goot Essa (Pennsylvania Dutch for “good food” or “good eating”) is a way to share the fruits of the community’s work through quality products and to help future generations of Amish families remain in the farming lifestyle.
“That’s really our mission,” Esh says. “To keep Amish families on the farm.”
Goot Essa has been successful in that mission. Esh’s family and friends care for the animals that produce the milk used for the cheese — his nephew’s family keeps the cows, his daughter’s family the sheep, and another young family the goats.
Opening in 2001 as a six-family cooperative, the team at Goot Essa began their cheesemaking journey. About six years in, Esh says they received many requests for more European-style cheeses like Manchego and Camembert.
Esh decided to design some recipes in the European style and built a “cheese cave” in 2009 for aging. Below the retail store in the cellar of the business are three rooms where cheeses age. Each room is a specially curated environment, kept perfect for the desired cheeses.
“It’s very critical that we get the humidity correct and the temperature,” Esh explains. “If it’s too dry in that room, the rinds will crack. If it’s too wet, they’ll become smeary and not develop a nice, healthy rind.”
Soft cheeses like Der Weichen Gehl and Marn Vom Berge are kept in one room, and Der Edel Bleu Cheese is kept in another by itself because of the mold growth. The blue cheese is probed with stainless steel rods so mold can grow throughout the cheese, creating the signature blue veins.
Although encased in cement, the cheese caves are delicate venues. A series of pipes and whirring fans evenly distributes the air throughout the room around cheeses of all sizes and shapes. The air is moist and has an earthen smell. Large bins full of brine house the newest cheeses for 24 hours before they begin their aging on the shelves. Some age for a few weeks and others more than a year.
“This was trial and error and we’re still learning with this,” Esh says of perfecting the cheese cave setup. “It’s been quite the journey because there’s so many moving parts in this cave.”
Wooden boards with letter and number markings designate which batch a cheese is from. Cheeses rotate from top down as they age. Cheeses are inspected, rotated and sprayed with vinegar for the best aging results. The cheese cave is inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and is regularly cleaned and power washed.
Goot Essa offers cheese cave tours for the public. Tours are $15 a person and can be scheduled by calling the business at least a few days ahead. Over 30 to 45 minutes, visitors see the facility and enjoy a guided cheese tasting at the conclusion of the tour.
“There are many people who want to try this cave tour cheese tasting experience because it’s unique,” Esh says. “They want to understand the story behind the cheese.”
The story behind the cheese and all Goot Essa’s offerings is rooted in the people and their culture. Many members of Goot Essa are Amish, so their business practices reflect their beliefs. The business is closed on Sundays and the farming is done without modern-day machinery. Goot Essa also uses traditional Amish recipes. Esh’s wife, Anna Mary, makes some of the spreads and the fudge.
“They can feel the love and taste the quality,” Esh says of Goot Essa’s products.
Goot Essa sells individual products, and employees can offer help in selecting items that pair well together for a snack or charcuterie board.
The Dutch Treat Raspberry-Red Beet Spread is a jelly with the sweetness of raspberries and earthy taste of a red beet. The spread is perfect with the savory cheeses or paired with salty pretzels. It can pair well with a cheese like the Old German Weissa, a Swiss Alps-inspired cheese that is incredibly creamy, often a favorite of younger visitors.
Visitors can also sample cheeses and spreads before buying. Goot Essa offers recipes that feature some of the products as ingredients.
They also ship gift baskets, which are perfect ways to send a taste of Happy Valley.
“It’s handmade and there’s a lot of love in it,” Esh says of the gift baskets. All of the products inside are local to the Centre County region farming community, and Amish crafts people make the baskets.
“People want to buy local and support small family businesses,” Esh says.
Located at 351 Wise Road, Howard, Goot Essa accepts orders all year long and encourages those seeking to send a gift to order at least a week in advance. The shop gets quite busy shipping products across the country in addition to its usual distributions at wineries and restaurants throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. T&G
Hannah Pollock is a freelance writer in State College.
