I loved watching Our Gang and The Little Rascals while I was growing up, if I see a dog that looks like Petey, I fall into a nostalgic haze. Thinking back on the show as an adult, there were two things that scared the kids, but made me curious – castor oil and limburger cheese. After a three-year quest to find Limburger cheese in Connecticut, I’ve finally succeeded.

The Little Rascals/Our Gang has entertained kids of all ages for almost a hundred years, and it’s inspired the feeling of doom and gloom every time I’ve heard Limburger cheese or Castor Oil mentioned. I’ve tried Castor Oil, it’s not anywhere as bad as I had imagined.

When I started working with Ethan and Lou three years ago, somehow my wanting to try the stinky cheese came up in the course of conversation, and my quest began. The Limburger leads started coming in – DeCicco’s has it, they might have it, Stew Leonard’s had it, but I couldn’t get there. I looked in supermarkets all over Connecticut – multiple Big Y’s, Stop & Shop’s, Bantam Market and Northville Market, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market, Balducci’s, Key Foods, even Aldi. Nothing. I asked inside Oakville’s New Curds on the Block, at the Caseus Crispy Melty truck too.

Finally, this past weekend, I shopped at Torrington’s Market 32, and there it was. I bought a 6oz. block of Country Castle Limburger Cheese from Monroe, Wisconsin, and I’m about to take the first whiff of Limburger in my lifetime, be right back.

Yowza. It’s true. My God. It smells like a teenager’s room that’s been filled full of dirty socks, with a hint of an Italian combo grinder that’s been left in the sun for 3 hours. Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Darla, and Stymie, you were right.