Philadelphia-based couple Shannon Neddy and Adam Campos recently launched Ladybug, a vegan charcuterie business specializing in handmade cheeses and meats. Ladybug offers charcuterie boards featuring cashew- and vegan yogurt-based cheeses such as Valentine’s Day Brie, Meltable Nut-Free Muenster, Creamy Danish Blue, Creamy Cashew Boursin, and Cheddar. Customers can choose to pair cheese selections with housemade vegan meats such as salami and pepperoni, along with fresh made crackers.
After COVID-19 regulations limited restaurant and bar operations, service industry veterans Neddy and Campos found themselves unemployed. Neddy, a long time vegan, and Campos took to the kitchen and began experimenting with their expansive collection of vegan cookbooks. “We didn’t set out to do charcuterie initially per se,” the couple told VegNews. “As the vegan cookbooks we were buying started piling up, we started to put things together and all of a sudden one day we had enough for a charcuterie board.”
The pair enjoy experimenting with unique ingredients such as beet powder brine to help simulate the texture, color, and mouthfeel of animal-based meat. Similarly, their cheese-making is influenced by the ingredients they came across during their travels and research. “We’re always working on new cheeses. We try to incorporate ingredients we’re really excited about using,” said the pair. “Wine powder? Put it in a cheese! Edible vegetable ash? Put it in a cheese! Ladybug is still very much in its infancy and if in our travels and research we find a cheese we’d like to try… we basically can’t wait to try to come up with our own Ladybug version of it.”
Vegan charcuterie boards are available for purchase through the Ladybug website. While pick-up and delivery options are currently available locally and across Philadelphia, Neddy and Campos hope to one day offer nationwide shipping.
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