May 2013
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Guardian: The secrets of Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire...
The Guardian features a nice essay by Graham Kirkham of Mrs. Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheese, in which he discusses the roots of his cheese knowledge and passion:
The secrets of Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese Graham Kirkham inherited his artisanal approach from the females in his family
My grandmother, Ruth Townley, made cheese all her life. When she retired, she moved to Beesley...
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SF Bicycle Coalition: Tour du Fromage, 05/26
San Francisco’s two-wheeled turophiles can combine both their passions into one day of riding around the city and tasting the best cheese that S.F. has to offer:
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Rec Ride: Tour du Fromage
Sun., May. 26 | 10am-4:30pm | Meet at McLaren Lodge
Join JB Rumburg, Other Avenues’ Cheesemonger for the Tour du Fromage—a bicycle ride highlighting his...
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Food Travel Company: Madame Fromage Interview
The Food Travel Company blog features an interview with Tenaya Darlington, author of the new book House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes and Pairings (you can check out my review here):
From her tales of cheese retreats, to her tips on how to talk to a cheesemonger, to her generally epic encyclopedic knowledge of cheese, through to her love of Joan Didion, there’s definitely something...
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Arkansas Legalizes Raw Milk Sales
Via RealMilk.com, Arkansas has now legalized on-farm sales of raw cow and goat milk:
Beginning in July 2013, Arkansas farms will be allowed to sell up to 500 gallons of unpasteurized cow milk per month, and up to 500 gallons of unpasteurized goat milk per month, directly to consumers. It will still be illegal to sell unpasteurized milk at farmers markets or other retail outlets. Under the new...
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BBC: Village of Stilton cannot make "Stilton"
The BBC reports that the village of Stilton has lost their appeal to make name-controlled Stilton:
Stilton cheese has traditionally been made in three East Midland counties who have protection over the product name, but a Cambridgeshire village wants to be able to make the cheese that bears its name.
Shailesh Vara MP claimed those making the cheese today in Leicestershire,...
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Boston Globe: Tasting Quebec Cheeses At Their...
Quebec is producing many great cheeses these days, including a wider variety of raw milk cheeses thanks to provincial laws that are closer to those of Europe. I tasted some great ones at last year’s ACS Conference in Raleigh, and Quebec makers took home multiple ribbons. The Boston Globe went on a driving tour of the Quebec Cheese trail:
In Saint-Lambert, a Montreal suburb, Max Dubois runs...
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Cheese School SF: Honey & Cheese Pairings
Coming May 22nd to the Cheese School of San Francisco, a class in Honey and Cheese pairings, from Marina Marchese of Red Bee Honey:
Cheese & Honey with Red Bee Founder Marina Marchese May 22
Marina Marchese beekeeper, author, president of Red Bee Honey will induct you into the secret world of the honeybee with a remarkable class. She pairs each of her single-origin nectar honeys with a...
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Boston Globe: VT's first community-owned dairy
The Boston Globe profiles Vermont Farmstead, a farm and cheesemaker that was started to save the land from development, and is now producing award-winning cheeses (You can see my review of their Lille Cheese, pictured above, here).
SOUTH WOODSTOCK, Vt. — Perched on a hill overlooking a valley, Farmstead Cheese Co. began as a neighborly plan to preserve a dairy farm.
The bucolic 18-acre...
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April 2013
42 posts
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Michael Pollan: Cooked
In Michael Pollan’s new book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, he “immerses himself in four types of cooking that he links — in theory, fact or informed fancy — to the ancient elements of fire, water, air and earth.” The book also features the cheese world’s favorite microbiologist/nun, Sister Noella:
Germophobes may want to skip the closing...
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BBC: Colston Bassett celebrates 100 years
Colston Bassett, maker of one of the most highly regarded British blues, celebrates it’s 100th anniversary this week:
Colston Bassett celebrates 100 years of Stilton cheese
A Nottinghamshire village is celebrating 100 years since it began producing Stilton cheese. Stilton cheese can only be made in five dairies in the East Midlands. Colston Bassett has one of the five dairies,...
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Winterdale Cheesemakers launches first ever...
Via FoodBev.com, news of a British cheesemaker that has converted their production process to carbon-neutral, even throwing in a Nissan Leaf electric car to transport their product:
In late 2011, Winterdale Cheesemakers started to turn its production process over to carbon-neutral sources. Using a ground source heat pump as well as PV (photovoltaic) solar panels, Winterdale Cheesemakers found...
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ACS Responds to FDA Listeria Draft Report
The American Cheese Society has posted their formal response to the FDA’S draft report on Listeria risk in soft-ripened cheeses. Important reading, and hopefully the FDA will take it seriously (although I am admittedly pessimistic, given their track record):
American Cheese Society Comments in Response to: Joint FDA/Health Canada Quantitative Assessment of the Risk of Listeriosis from...
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Take Part: Is Listeria Lurking in Your Camembert?
Short answer: probably not. The actual risks from raw milk cheeses are quite low, and the 60-day law actually increases the risk, when it comes to soft-ripened cheeses like Camembert, because these cheeses tend to become higher risk the longer they age: when they’re relatively young, the pH of the cheeses works to keep the more dangerous pathogens at bay. In France, where raw milk cheeses...
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"Hello My Name Is": Name a Coach Farm wheel, and...
How would you like to name a cheese? Not just any cheese, but a new, raw, goat’s milk cheese from one of America’s top goat cheese producers? Well now, you have the chance, thanks to the Culture Magazine “Hello My name Is” contest! Check out my review of the cheese in the next post.
The black and red logo of Coach Farm probably looks familiar to you; since Miles and...
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Oxford Mail: Oxford Blue from a French-born Baron
From the Oxford Mail in the UK comes word of a new blue cheese, courtesy of a Baron with French roots:
Oxford Blue cheese is to be made here in the county for the first time.
And its creator, a French-born baron, believes it could one day rival Stilton.
Almost 20 years after coming up with the idea for a soft and creamy English blue cheese, Robert Pouget – who prefers not to use his full...
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PODCAST episode 01: David Jowett →
Via eattherind, there’s a new cheese podcast in town, Eat the Rind! the Inaugural episode features David Jowett:
In our inaugural podcast episode we meet David Jowett, creator of Jowett Cheese, who discusses why he chose to make an alpine style cheese in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Whilst we await approval from the iTunes store, you can download it from Dropbox or stream it from Soundcloud...
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The Guardian: Umami
The Guardian has an interesting piece on Umami, the “5th Taste”, which is vital to the flavor profile of many cheeses, most famously Parmigiano Reggiano:
Our predilection for umami – the only recently recognised (by western scientists) “fifth taste”, after salt, sweet, sour and bitter - is a fascinating piece in the jigsaw of our gastronomic evolution. Since studies...
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Almanac Weekly: Hudson Valley Cheese Trail
Hudson Valley Almanac Weekly toured some of the cheese makers and mongers in the Hudson Valley, including two that I’ve had the good fortune of taking part in the make process with, Hawthorne Valley and Sprout Creek:
Whatever your pleasure, there’s bound to be a local cheesemaker or -monger who will have you waxing poetic. The Hudson Valley cheese scene is in full bloom.
I took a trip...
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Deer Cheese, anyone?
Deer cheese, anyone? You might have to go to New Zealand for it, at least for now. But given how overrun New England is with whitetails, I feel like there’s a business opportunity waiting to be tapped…assuming you can catch and milk em…
University of Otago Food Science Department lecturer Alaa El-Din Ahmed Bekhit says he saw the Djokovic-donkey-cheese news and thought, I...
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Vermont Cheesemakers Festival 2013
Tickets for the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival — an annual celebration of Vermont’s cheese heritage — have just gone on sale! Get in there early as they tend to sell out fast.
Vermont is the premium artisanal cheese state with the highest number of cheesemakers per capita: over 40 of them! We invite you to experience our passion for making fine cheeses, taste local and fresh foods and...
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Inhabitat: Vermont produce, by boat?
Being up in Burlington, Vermont at the moment (taking VIAC classes in order to complete my certification), I thought this story, of a Vermont farmer and his dreams of delivering produce to NYC via boat, was apropos. Via Inhabitat:
Vermont farmer Erik Andrus wants to bring an entirely new approach to the growing farm-to-table food trend by sailing his produce down the Hudson River to NYC....
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