American Cheese Society Conference 2008

Photo: Chicago Skyline carved in cheese.



Click on the slideshow to enlarge the pictures.

The American Cheese Society Conference began with a bus tour of Roth Kase in Wisconsin and ended with the Festival of Cheese. Four days of lactic gluttony, schmoozing, and workshops. Well worth the time and expense to get to Chicago. From 7:00am to late at night, we immersed ourselves in the American cheese world. American cheese does not mean those little plasticine squares of orange colored cheese food. For me, American cheese is over 1100 cheeses produced by hundreds of cheesemakers from all over the North American continent. I spent hours getting to know some of these fine folks and I enjoyed every minute of it.

My days were spent in workshops like "Demystifying Rennet and Coagulants," "Wine Versus Beer Smackdown," Ripening Cultures for Cheesemaking," and "Selecting Suitable Cheese for Extended Aging." Gripping subjects and stimulating discussions. The highlights were the annual Awards Ceremony and the Festival of Cheese. My favorite cheese discovery this year was Ocooch Mountain by Hidden Springs Creamery in Wisconsin. Brenda Jensen is a relative newcomer to cheesemaking, she's been at it for 1 1/2 years. Her sheep's milk cheese was exquisite. Raw sheep's milk, semi-firm washed rinded cheese in a Basque style like Ossau Iraty or P'tit Basque. Yum!

Jim and I ran away from the conference on Friday afternoon. We went to see the Cubs play the Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field. Our friends Carrie and Bob had tickets and offered us three seats. Carrie couldn't make it, but Bob, Jim, my friend Pam, and I spent a lovely afternoon at the ballpark, watching the game and the crowd. I got to enjoy a Chicago dog in one of the best ballparks in the country. Pam and I ran away after the seventh inning stretch. We had to go to the American Cheese Society Competition Awards. She had some cheese entered, so we couldn't miss the ceremony.

The awards were fun. It is always nice to see friends recognized for their efforts. The Best of Show went to Carr Valley Cheese Company for their Goat Milk Cheddar called Snow White. Sid Cook, is a fourth generation master cheesemaker. He produces over 80 cheeses, many have won awards, but he's never taken Best of Show. Quite a feat for him. If you're curious, click here for the results from the judging.

The finale for the conference is the Festival of Cheese. Imagine a huge ballroom, in this case the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Hilton, with countless tables laden with cheese. Every cheese that is entered into the cheese competition is set out for sampling. Ribbons are on the award winners. There is a table for everything. You can find blue cheese, smoked cheese, flavored cheese, marinated cheese, washed rinded cheese, soft ripened cheese, sheep's milk, goat's milk, buffalo milk, even a wasabi cheese. Sure, there are cheddars, goudas, jacks, feta, yogurt, butter, and cheese spreads. Everything is up for grabs.

Photo: Ocooch Mtn Cheese, a new favorite of mine. Aged sheep's milk cheese from Wisconsin.


If you get thirsty, there is also lots of beer and wine to wash down all of that cheese. Bread, fruit, crackers, and jams are also available for sampling. The amount of cheese in the ballroom is staggering. Jim and I took care to pace ourselves. At the last festival we learned to get to the the top winning cheeses early and then be more selective about what you want to try. This year I wanted to explore the Canadian cheeses since we don't see most of them on this side of the border. Carrie and her friend Amy joined us and they had a field day, running around from table to table, doing vertical tastings of blue cheeses, washed rinded cheese, cheddar, and goudas. I felt like Homer in Candyland or a golden ticket winner entering Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Everything was edible and most were delicious.

The crowd started to thin during the last hour of the festival and there was still a ton of cheese left on every table. At 9:00pm, the festival was officially over, yet there was still a lot of cheese to be consumed. We looked at all of this cheese and wondered what they were going to do with all of it. Throw it out? I grabbed Steve, one of the organizers and asked if Carrie and Amy could take some leftovers home. "The pig farmer backed out, so anything that's cut is up for grabs. We're just going to throw it out." I relayed this info back to our friends. Their eyes got big and they grabbed their plastic "to-go" containers and did their best to keep some of the best cheese out of Chicago's landfill. After 10 minutes we regrouped. They had filled their containers with a wide variety of small format cheeses and wedges of some nice looking semi-firm cheeses, too. Tucked under an arm, Carrie had a rustic loaf of french bread, Amy had a round loaf balanced on top of her plastic container. Others followed their lead and grabbed cheese, too. Jim and I didn't want to take anything on the plane, so we just got to be voyeurs and helped Carrie and Amy with their haul.

The Festival of Cheese is as close to heaven as a cheese lover can get. And it happens every year. Next year you'll find me in Austin, Texas. Perhaps closer to having my own cheese ready to be judged and consumed at the Festival of Cheese.

Via Chicago

I know, I know, I need to go on and on about our first few weeks in Oregon. And I will. I promise. But today is not the day.

I am currently sitting in the Computer Commons of the Chicago Public Library. Beautiful building in downtown Chicago, not to far from our hotel. Why am I in Chicago? Well, my dear friend Carrie lives here and the American Cheese Society Conference has landed in this fair city this year.

I love Chicago. It has some magnificent museums, great public transit, and some of the best pizzas on the planet. And if you like hot dogs, this place is heaven. I went to the Vienna Beef factory once and got to eat a dog in their "outlet." I eat in the finest establishments when I travel.

The conference starts tomorrow. Jim and I are taking a long bus ride to the Roth Kase factory in Wisconsin. We'll tour the plant with other cheese conference attendees. Thursday is the beginning of the panels and and meetings. Saturday is the big event, the Festival of Cheese. Imagine a ballroom filled with over 1000 cheeses, butter, yogurt, spreads, as well as beer, wine and water. Insert thousands of cheese lovers into the ballroom and watch the fun. This conference is one of the highlights of my year.

I'm sure I'll have lots of photos over the next few days, so I'll try to upload some of the highlights next week.

And then there's all of our goings-on in Dundee. Slowfood Yamhill County potlucks, u-pick cherries, u-pick lamb, farmers markets galore, seeking other cheesemakers, Turkey-rama, and trying to track down some friendly dairy folks who want to sell me their milk. Life has been interesting as we find ourselves settling into our new home.

Safe and sound

Photo: View overlooking 9th Avenue towards the Marin Headlands and Mt. Tamalpais.


Greetings from Dundee, Oregon. We made it safe and sound. Our astonishing amount of stuff made it here intact, Our cats are adjusting to the new house pretty well. They love watching the birds, but the ceiling fans scare them to death. They think this large, moving object is about to descend from above and attack them. They'll just have to figure it out, I guess.

Recapping:
Our last few days in San Francisco were pretty hectic. With the help of our magnificent friends, we got all of the contents of our 1615 square foot house packed into many, many boxes. Everything was labeled and stacked in the living room and garage. Our evenings were spent with family and friends, sharing final meals and a few drinks.

Then the movers showed up. They arrived at 9:00am on Tuesday, June 3rd. The big-rig driver parked along side of our neighbors house. He then came in and assessed the load. He was impressed with our mountain of boxes that filled half of our garage. We laughed and told him to look at all of the stuff in the living room. He moved inside, going from room to room, noting what had to go and double checking with us as to what was staying (appliances, travel clothes, etc.) We already designated a "safety zone," a place where we stashed the stuff we didn't want to go on to the truck. And then they got down to business.



Photo: our house on 9th Ave in San Francisco. It's for sale!


The crew of many men began grabbing hand trucks and a parade of large and small cardboard boxes began to migrate from our house to the semi-trailer on Moraga Street. These guys were blazingly fast. The garage was empty in about an hour. I was impressed. Our truck driver coordinated the crew and everyone kept moving. Lunch came and went. The upstairs living room began to be cleared out. It was like watching a time lapse movie of a once strong flower bloom, wither, die, decompose and vanish. In a couple of days all of this stuff would reemerge 650 miles to the north at our new home.

And shortly after 5:00pm, they were done. Our house was empty except for a few items and our cats. We said farewell to the driver and the truck and went back into the house. Our feet echoed on the hardwood floors. Cat fur rolled across the empty living room like a tumbleweed. The vacuum was on the truck. Oh well. We borrowed an inflatable mattress from my mom. This was our only furniture left in the house. We pumped it up and went out to dinner. We were meeting friends at Toronado, a favorite watering hole in the Lower Haight. We figured it was a Tuesday night, so it shouldn't be too crowded. Wrong! It was packed. And we made it more crowded with our friends. We managed to take over the back room so socializing was easier. It was a nice send off. Jim and I were really touched. A lot of folks showed up. I wish there was some way to take all of our friends with us. I miss them already.

Photo: Jim finds a place to sit. I miss this kitchen.

We went home and flopped on the air mattress. Hmm. It didn't seem as firm as it had been. I inflated it some more and we went to bed. I woke up a few hours later with my butt hitting the floor. It seems Mom's mattress had a a leak! In my haze, I managed to pump the bed up again and we went back to sleep. We awoke in the morning with a semi-inflated bed and bitter words for my mother. "Oh. It did that once before," she informed me. "It seemed to fix itself." Well, it seemed to be unfixed again. We also came to the realization that the only place to sit was on the stairs--we didn't have a chair. Not good. I can stand for hours, but somehow standing in an empty house just didn't cut it.

Instead of spending our last night in California at our own, empty house, we relocated to my mom's house, across the Golden Gate Bridge. We returned her air mattress.

Our last supper? Ebisu, our favorite sushi bar. One of the best sushi places in SF, just happens to be walking distance from our (soon to be former) house. We got seats in front of Suzuki, the patriarch of the sushi bar. Steve the owner came up and asked, "So is this it? Your last supper?" Yes, our last trip to Ebisu for a while. Steve sent over a bottle of sparkling sake, Japanese champagne, he explained. The meal was wonderful, but neither Jim nor I had much of an appetite. Too much on our minds.

We walked back up 9th Avenue, and into our empty home. Time to go. After a bit of wrangling, we got our cats into their travel carriers and into the car. Then we packed the rest of our gear. Or we tried. The cats took up a lot of room. So did our stuff. I couldn't get it all into our Subaru. I'm a pretty good packer, being a visual sort of person, but I couldn't make it work. I knew we had too much to carry. We had to leave a few things behind, to be retrieved later. At last, at 10:30pm, we were saying goodbye to our house. On Friday, the painters were coming, the handyman was coming and the place was getting ready to go on the market. Wow.

The drive to my mom's house was surreal. I just could not begin to fathom that I was leaving this place for good. I watched the familiar landmarks whirl past my window. Goodbye, Roxie Market; so long, N Judah streetcar; be safe, homeless guy who sits in front of Gordo's Taqueria. I quietly wept while Jim navigated the streets of San Francisco, taking us across the Golden Gate Bridge, past the many places that I explored in my youth and up to my mom's house, the house where I grew up.

Photo: Jim and I getting ready to hit the road.


Mom and Ian were asleep. We off-loaded the kitties into the downstairs bathroom, and off-loaded ourselves into my sister's old bedroom. Sleep came easily that night.

Our early start didn't turn out to be that early on Thursday.

Coming up next: The trip north, unpacking, and unpacking some more, and taking the first steps towards starting a cheese business. That's why we moved!

Kicking and Screaming

Photo: Mateo Kehler, cheesemaker at Jasper Hill Farm, and Peggy Smith, owner of Cowgirl Creamery plating cheese.

Woo hoo! No turning back now. We're going for broke. Literally.

We now own two homes. One in San Francisco, California and one in Dundee, Oregon. I am very pleased with how things have turned out. The house closed smoothly. We bought a tractor. We've hired an orchard manager to take care of the six acres of Filbert/Hazelnut trees. We toured a dairy to see if we could get dairy contacts from them. We opened a bank account and registered to vote. We've been changing addresses on our subscriptions, We've driven 11 hours between houses, moving our precious belongings.

The movers show up in NINE days!!!!!

Personal rant time: We're packing. We've got so much stuff. A few friends have come over to help and now one side of our garage is covered in boxes from floor to ceiling. The garage is just about packed. What a pain the neck. This is a major sore point for me. I'm pretty good about purging stuff that I no longer need. Essentially, I self edit. My husband is a copy editor by trade. He cannot self edit. He's a HUGE pack rat. We've boxes and boxes of magazines that he just cannot get rid of. Isn't there a name for this kind of hoarding behavior? We have five years worth of Mojo magazine, Rolling Stones from the 70's and 80's. Heavy Metal from the 70's. Bam magazine from the 80's. Ugh. All of this stuff adds up to a lot of excess weight and baggage. If we should die, I feel sorry for whoever has to throw this stuff away.

I have a Vespa scooter (1980 P200e like the one pictured in this ad from the era). He wants me to get rid of it. I made him a deal. He gets rid of the magazines and I'll get rid of my scooter. Yes, my scooter has been sitting idle for 15 years. I used to have a Lambretta and a Heinkle scooter. They're long gone. I've only got my original Vespa that I bought from an engineering professor while I was attending the University of Missouri. At least my scooter is useful and can be tuned up easily. He never re-reads the magazines. They're in no kind of order, nor are they archived. They're just in boxes. This really grinds my gears. Moving brings out the best in folks.

I have visions of delivering cheese on my scooter to restaurants and markets. Will this happen? I don't know. But I like the mental image it creates. End of rant.



Photo: Making Mt. Tam in the creamery in Petaluma, California.


I've been fortunate to take a bit of time to spend with my friends at Cowgirl Creamery. Sue Conley came over from the warehouse on Tuesday and gave me a tour of the new creamery in Petaluma. It is so fun to see a shiny, new creamery in full operating mode. It still has that "new creamery smell"!

They've been making cheese since March in the new location. Mt. Tam, the bloomy rind triple cream is the sole cheese being produced in the new facility. Soon their seasonal cheese, St. Pat will be added to the list of cheeses coming out of Petaluma. Red Hawk will continue to be produced in Pt. Reyes. It is just the perfect environment for it. The flavor is in the air. They've got plenty of room for aging, and even room for more growth. One of these days I wouldn't be surprised if they start making a firm, aged cheese.

Photo: Sue Conley, owner of Cowgirl Creamery, holding a perfectly ripe Constant Bliss from Jasper Hill Farm


Sue invited me to an event sponsored by the California Artisan Cheese Guild on Thursday. She was hosting a cheese tasting and lecture given by herself and special guest Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm. The event was called "Cave Dweller of the 21st. Century." They talked about their big projects. Sue discussed building the new creamery and Mateo talked about his massive cheese aging facility that's partially up and running on his farm in Vermont.

For me, this was an update and a refresher course. When I visited Mateo in December, the massive, vaulted cheese chambers were not up and running. Now two of them are filled with Cabot clothbound cheddar, aging gracefully. More vaults are nearing completion and will be filled with cheeses from around New England. It is an ambitious project that excites and inspires me. The complexity and the numerous hurdles needed to be overcome in order to build seven cheese cellars are enough to make anyone throw up their hands and say "forget it!" The folks at Jasper Hill Farm are overcoming those hurdles and showing us that anything can happen if you put your mind to it.

The lecture also featured a nice selection of cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm and Cowgirl Creamery. On the cheese plate we got to sample a Mt. Tam produced at the new creamery. The rest of the cheeses were Jasper Hill's Constant Bliss from Jasper Hill Farms, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Cowgirl's Red Hawk, Jasper Hill's Winnimere, and Jasper Hill's Bayley Hazen Blue.

Each cheese was perfectly ripe and vanished quickly.

Since Cowgirl changed method of production for Mt. Tam, I was really curious to try some the the cheese produced in Petaluma. I was more than satisfied with the results. The new creamery produces some exceptional Mt. Tams. The rind is a bit more delicate, the flavors of cream, mushroom and salt all are have more balance and nuances. I thought is was one of the best Mt. Tams I've ever had.

I met a fellow cheese blogger named Bryce. His blog is called Canyon of Cheese. He's got a good description of the lecture on his blog, as well as the sold out "Raw Milk" panel hosted by the Commonwealth Club earlier in the week. The event was a great opportunity to catch up with Mateo, as well as others attending the lecture. Friends I've made from the Cheese School of San Francisco sat next me. It was nice to see so many friends from the local cheese community one last time before we make a run for the (northern) border.

Signed, Sealed, (and almost) Delivered

Photo: Our house in San Francisco. The yucca is in bloom out front. The blue bushes are ceanothus a.k.a. California False Lilac.
















Photo: Our new driveway in Dundee, Oregon.


Done deal. The house is ours. The tractor is ours. The orchard is ours. I own 12 acres in the Red Hills of Dundee!

Now we just have to haul up stakes and get settled in our new home. This isn't as easy as it sounds. We've got a lot of STUFF. Jim has a ton of albums. We're talking 12" vinyl records from decades of record collecting. I've got some records, too. My big guilty pleasure are books. I've got lots and lots of books. Cookbooks, cheese books. reference books, fiction, guide books, field guides, biographies. Lots of books. Our kitchen is crammed full of stuff, too. This is scary.

Here are more photos to keep you happy in the meantime.

This is our new home, with lots of red soil. The red hills of Dundee make some mighty fine wines. Hopefully, they will make some mighty fine cheeses, too.

Add it Up

I am in official freak out mode right now. We're 16 days away from closing. Most of the hurdles are now behind us and we're waiting to sign papers, and then take ownership of our future business.

We sent out an email to a bunch of friends with photos of the new place. It is hard to announce "We're moving!" Suddenly I'm overcome with nostalgia and love for all of our friends and I want to spend every second with them while we're still in the Bay Area.

Moving sucks.

Spring means fresh cheese! How about some ricotta?

Photo: my breakfast this morning. Fresh ricotta with strawberries and honey.

Happy Vernal Equinox. Ok, it was yesterday, but I'm still feeling it in my bones. What effect does that have on me? It means I've got to get my creative cooking juices going.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about cooking with ricotta on Wednesday. It had some nice recipes, but what it failed to mention was how easy it is to make your own ricotta. Inspired, I made my own ricotta.

While I was heating the milk, Paul our real estate agent called to go over some things on the inspection. I had to tell him to hang on for a second while I switched phones, as I had to go back to the kitchen and watch a my milk heat. "I'm making ricotta," in informed him. "You're making cheese?" Paul asked. "Uh, I guess I am. I'm making ricotta. It's a fresh cheese. It's dead easy to make." Paul was surprised to hear that I was making it at home. He's really excited and eager for us making cheese in Yamhill County. "I've been telling everyone about you!" he said. I like having support like this. It reassures me as I take a huge leap of faith and move to a new home, a new state, and a new life.

There are lots of different methods for making ricotta. Traditionally ricotta is made from whey expelled during the making of hard cheeses. The whey is heated (recooked=ricotta,) an acid is added and the milk solids that are still lingering in the whey are extracted. I'm using a whole milk recipe, since I don't have any fresh whey today.

How I did it:

Ingredients:
Milk
white vinegar, cider vinegar, or lemon juice (an acidifier)
salt

Tools:
stainless steel or enamal pot (non-reactive)
stainless steel slotted spoon or ladle
stainless steel colander/strainer
cheesecloth, enough to line the colander

I bought a gallon of the freshest milk I could find. I'm only using 1/2 of it, I might make more ricotta tomorrow. I went to Parkside Produce on Taraval at 15th Avenue to get it. They carry Clover Milk from Sonoma County at a good price. Clover is usually very fresh and doesn't have to travel far to get to The City. I avoid buying UHT-ultrapasteurised milk because it has a funky flavor, all of the good stuff has been cooked out of the milk, and it has a super-long shelf life. Who knows how fresh UHT milk really is?

Back in my kitchen, I cleaned an enamel pot, an instant read thermometer/dairy thermometer, stainless steel colander, and a stainless steel slotted spoon. When you make cheese everything must be spotless! I also grabbed a piece of cheesecloth, big enough to line the colander. If I only have the loosely woven cheesecloth from the grocery store, I use twice as much and fold it in half so I have a double layer to line the colander. I'll use it to drain the ricotta.

I pour 1/2 gallon of milk into the pot and began heating over a low heat. I want the temperature of the milk to rise slowly and gently to 180-185 degrees - just before boiling on the thermometer. It should take about 35-45 minutes. Sometimes I heat the milk in a double-boiler, it is my preferred method. Today I'm being lazy, so I heat it directly on the stove. I try not to stir the milk too much, so heating it slowly will keep it from scorching on the bottom.

When the milk is hot, I remove it from the heat. I quickly add 5 tablespoons of white vinegar and give it one quick stir to integrate. The transformation from milk to ricotta happens almost immediately. I don't want to stir too much because it will break up the curds that form.

I leave the pot for about 15 - 20 minutes, allowing time for the curds to really separate and settle.

While the ricotta curds are resting, I place the colander in my CLEAN sink, wet the cheesecloth and line the colander. I'm now ready to drain the ricotta.

After the resting period, I take the pot over to the sink and gently ladle the ricotta curds into the cheesecloth-lined colander. I then let the ricotta drain for 15 minutes - 1 hour. The longer it drains the more dry the curds.

Finally, I add a bit of salt to taste. If I'm using the ricotta for breakfast with some fresh berries (like today,) I don't add much salt, just a few shakes. I then serve it up or store it in some tupperware and refrigerate it.

Now I have about 9-10 ounces of fresh ricotta to enjoy. I try to eat it within a day or two.

If you want to see another version, try the recipe on the blog, Becks & Posh. Sam uses buttermilk as the acidifier. I think I might try that next. Enjoy!