Via the Scientific American podcast, news of proof for cheesemaking as early as 7,500 years ago: 

What prehistoric genius first discovered how to transform milk into delicious cheese? We may never find out, but we now know that humans were purposefully making cheese as early as 7,500 years ago. The finding is in the journal Nature. [Mélanie Salque et al, Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe]

To make cheese, you first force milk to coagulate into curds. Then you strain off the liquid, called whey.

Modern cheese strainers bear a strong resemblance to the remains of 34 clay vessels recovered from Polish archaeological sites. But researchers did not know if the vessels might have also have served other purposes. The new study analyzed the residues on these unglazed pottery shards and found the remains of milk fat. Which proves that these containers were part of the cheese-making process more than 7,000 years ago.

Speaking to FoxNews, Dr. Paul Kindstedt, author of “Cheese and Culture” and director of VIAC (I had one class with him there), had this to say: 

“This is the smoking gun,” said Paul Kindstedt, a professor of nutrition and food sciences at the University of Vermont and author of “Cheese and Culture.” He was not involved in the study.

“It’s almost inconceivable that the milk fat residues in the sieves were from anything else but cheese,” Kindstedt said, adding that many experts suspected cheese was being made in Turkey up to 2,000 years than this latest finding in Poland but that there was no definitive proof.

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This looks to be a really interesting event. Dr. Paul Kindstedt was one of my instructors during my four-day class at VIAC and is an engaging and entertaining public speaker, as well as being someone who really knows his cheese history. Needless to say, if you haven’t bought his book yet, get to it!

9000 Years of Cheese: Fermenting Religion, Climate Change, and the Environment

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, New York, NY (Map)

“9000 Years of Cheese: Fermenting Religion, Climate Change, and the Environment”

with Paul Kindstedt

Thursday, May 31, 2012 | Tickets
6:30 pm Check-in and reception | 7:00 pm Lecture
$25 CHNY and MVMH Members | $22 CHNY and MVMH Senior & Student Members | $40 Non-Members and Guests 

Weaving together archeology, anthropology, linguistics, and geography, Paul Kindstedt’s new book, Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and its Place in Western Culture, shows how this extraordinary cultural comestible has influenced and enriched humankind. Paul’s lecture will focus on three factors that profoundly shaped the history of cheese: human spirituality, global climate change, and environmental degradation. 

Cheese was part of the religious history of western civilization, starting in the Mesopotamian “cradle of civilization.”  Yet climate changes and environmental degradation, already occurring in the 4th millennium BCE, pushed cheese making into new directions and set Europe on a track to become the cheese making powerhouse of the world. Cheese making’s rich and luscious history, from Neolithic cultures through ancient Rome, medieval Holland, and modern America, will be showcased in a reception featuring artisanal cheeses and cheese recipes.

Paul Kindstedt is a Professor of Food Science at the University of Vermont, and Co-Director of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese. Author, with the Vermont Cheese Council, of American Farmstead Cheese (2005), he is a nationally recognized expert on dairy chemistry, cheese science, and cheese making.

Location:

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden (Map)
417 East 61st Street (between 1st Avenue and York)
New York, New York 10065

Purchase tickets here.

Via the Tampa Bay Times, a story about the burgeoning artisan cheese movement in Florida — a state not often mentioned in the same breath as the dairy industry. Also, a mention of VIAC, at which the owner of Winter Park Dairy took classes before starting his creamery:

Winter Park Dairy may have been a pioneer in producing natural, raw milk artisan cheeses in Florida, but it is not the state’s only cheese producer. The artisan cheese movement that started in this country in the early 1980s with big names like Maytag Dairy Farms and goat-cheese pioneer Laura Chenel has hit the Sunshine State with a vengeance in the past few years. We recently visited three cheese producers that represent different styles, different animals’ milk and very different agendas.

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