I have mentioned Sheana Davis’s Delice de la Vallee here many times, but this was the first time It was eligible to be in the ACS competition and, to no one’s surprise, it won its category (Fresh unripened mixed milk). Congrats Sheana!

I put these two winners together because I have a picture of them together. Here are Sheana Davis and Jana McClelland at the Festival of Cheese

Bellwether Crème Fraiche

Now, I’ve eaten Bellwether Crème Fraiche many times, but usually with stuff, you know? Tasting it straight really kind of blew me away. It was that perfect blend of rich, tart, fruity, milky flavors. Amazing delicate texture. I have raved about their yogurt and ricottas before, but I will now add this to the list of my NorCal favorites.

Me and Liam eating at a way-too-expensive restaurant

*Giving credit where it’s due, the awesome Kate Arding pointed me towards this anonymous bowl in the judging room. Right as always, Kate.

Three Happy Cows Organic Acai Blueberry Drinkable Yogurt

I know nothing about this company. Do they only have three cows? That seems unlikely. Are only three of their cows happy? How many total cows do they have? Wouldn’t the percentage of their cows that are happy be a more meaningful statistic?

A little digging shows that they are owned by an Indian (South Asian) food company in Texas called Kaurina’s. Well, I’m a Californian, I don’t really know anything about them either. I can’t give you any inside scoop so, I’ll just say that I judged this category (Flavor Added Yorgurt/All Milks) and I loved this yogurt drink. I had seconds even though I was tasting all 39 flavored yogurts. It’s organic and the bottle is really nice looking too.

I had an awesome 25 minute walk downtown to the conference hotel. Awesome because the nasty heat wave had broken and the weather felt like San Francisco. I was even able to wear my yearly cheese conference uniform. You may have seen it:

I didn’t carry the knife or the cheese though.

It was also awesome because I just love walking through the streets of Seattle. I have visited often enough that I have good associations and memories almost everywhere I go. It feels like home because I can walk around with an attitude saying “You know, Hamburger Mary’s/The Green Cat/aFLN/that weird combo leather-new age café used to be right there.” I also got to walk city streets flying my colors: Cheese and The 415

(Thanks again for the buttons Emi!)

Anyways, conference-wise, I was really touched at the signing. A lot of folks – some I’d known for years, some strangers – came up to tell me how much they liked the book. I was really touched. Usually signings are a very humbling event – people walk by trying not to make eye contact, I sit there trying not to cry – but this one really made me feel good. Thanks cheese community!

Last year, I – publicly and in a personal letter – criticized the ACS for the conference panels and workshops being too big, too infomercial. When Sasha Davies — one of the main 2010 organizers – called and asked me to be on a retailer panel, and that the panel would do the same talk twice so that it could be broken down into smaller groups, well, I kinda had to say yes, even if I felt a little overwhelmed with responsibility this year.

I’m really glad I did. “Last Stop: Cheese Shop” consisted of Nathan Aldridge (Murray’s Cheese),Megan Mullaney (Sickles Market), Carlos Souffrant (Zingerman’s),
Tom Van Voorhees (Rogue Creamery) and me. Earlier in the day, five teams of cheesemongers had competed in the 2nd annual Merchandising competition which tested their knowledge, wrapping skills, and display abilities. They each made displays out of the same cheeses, of which my very bad picture is here:

As a panel, we (twice) broke our 80 person seminar into five small groups and spent a few minutes on each display, critiquing, praising and trying to draw out discussion of what worked and what didn’t. It was actually really fun even when someone told me, “I disagree with everything you just said.” (and no, it wasn’t her display). We then did a big Q&A where we discussed many things, my favorite from a distributor annoyed (I later assumed) at having to give so much free labor to a large chain who routinely demands it in exchange for slotting. They asked us if we required (or wanted) distributors to help re-set our cases.

We mocked the very concept. It comes down to simple cheese pride. We all do cheese really differently than each other – I represented the only all pre-cut store, Carlos the all cut-to-order and the other folks somewhere in the middle — but there is one thing we all agree on: no one touches our cheese but us.

But Tuesday night before the cheese conference was really the only time I could do a book event and not be in competition with the officially sanctioned parties. Though I would miss a lot of the conference goers, I figured it would be a good event mixed with Seattle-locals and cheese travelers. And I love The Calf and Kid. Sheri runs a really fabulous shop. (Plus she gave me a CD of her hubby’s punk band!)

One thing I hadn’t realized was how loud it was going to be there. I had only been there once before and not all the businesses had opened yet. My addled, cheese-soaked voice had to compete with the restaurant next door. I decided I could only read short pieces. I could barely hear myself. I made everyone gather in close too.

(Sheana Davis, the mastermind behind Delice de la Vallee and the Epicurean Connection organized all the cheese for the event. Pt. Reyes Toma, Nicasio Valley Cheese, Valley Ford Cheese, and Carr Valley Cheese amused the attendees when I cut my reading short-ish.)

It’s always great to do a reading with a lot of cheese folks because they really get into it. When I talk about oozy, nasty Taleggio, they’ve lived it themselves. Many came up to trade stories afterwards, and many are worse than the ones I tell. It was also handy because other folks jumped in to answer questions.

Despite my voice woes, it was a wonderful event. I can’t list everyone who was there but it was awesome to have cheese mentors like Judy and Charlie Creighton in the same room with some of my favorite cheese-friends, old friends, the cheese-curious, and even my agent!

Thanks everyone!

*Along with all my old friends and cheese friends, I also got to meet Kurt Reighley whose book United States of Americana: Backyard Chickens, Burlesque Beauties, and Handmade Bitters: A Field Guide to the New American Roots Movement comes out this week! I haven’t had a chance to crack it yet – too much cheese! – but I promise a review when I do.

**There is also an account of the reading in Jeanne Carpenter’s Cheese Underground Blog

When I got to the Seattle Sheraton – home of the 2010 American Cheese Society Conference – I ignored my cheesy friends, loading up on antihistamines, ordered terrible, overpriced room service, and went to bed. I had 1400-some cheeses to judge the next day.

Of course, as most of you know by now, I didn’t have to judge that many cheeses myself. I was part of 15 teams of two dairy professionals – one aesthetic judge (me and other retailers, distributors, and/or writers) and one technical judge (usually a dairy scientist). We each taste and judge a few subcategories — about 50-60 cheeses a day. Then, we taste all the winners of each subcategory to decide on a winner for Best of Show. This year, that was about 100 more cheeses.

Dr. Nana Farkye (of Cal Poly) and me were a judging team. Chutarat from the Cheese Board Collective and Bonnie from a cold storage company (that I didn’t catch the name of) were the folks who kept the cheeses coming.

I can’t count how many times I was asked, “How do you taste that many cheeses and not die?”

Dr. Farkye and I holding some tools of the trade, not threatening anyone with our big knives.

I actually don’t find it that hard, at least until the Best of Show voting. We fill out forms and comments for every cheese we taste, then have to get a new cheese and core or cut into it before we start on the next one, so it’s about 5 minutes between every cheese, even if you are working fast. Plus there are plenty of plain crackers, fruit and tea to cleanse one’s palette with. There are also spit buckets. It should be noted that spit buckets for cheese are even more gross than spit buckets for wine. Just saying.

What is actually very hard is the 100-cheeses to taste in an hour whirlwind of the final round, when all the Best of Category cheeses are set up for the final vote. I will admit, that after two days of tasting I had to really spit out a lot of cheese, and concentrate on remembering to cleanse my palette often, and not just eat all the awesome cheese.

My categories this year: Cultured products/flavor added (39 entries!!), Soft-ripened sheep and mixed milk, Marinated/flavor added, Hispanic and Portuguese fresh cheese, American Originals/Brick Muenster, Soft-ripened/flavor added (all milks), American made/European style/Emmenthal, and Mature Cheddar/over 48 months.

I will write about the winners and my favorites later in the week, but it is a stunning thing to be surrounded by so many good cheeses. While not every one of the 1400-some cheeses is amazing, the sheer volume of cheeses is something to behold. I also think that the amount of very good cheeses is up every year, even when individual categories may go up and down.

The judging, for me, is the purest part of the whole conference. No hype, no relationships, no looking for non-tangible selling points. Just us and the anonymous cheese.

The judging room. I didn’t see that Steve Jones was on his cell until I test posted this entry. I’m sure he was NOT breaking confidentiality.

The response was varied but quick. The poor Cypress facebook page didn’t know what hit it. I think it was evident that Cypress was as shocked at the negative responses as their loyal customers were shocked at the announcement.

I wasn’t negative when I heard the news, but I was already dreading the response by customers. As a natural foods store worker, I can attest that many of our most loyal shoppers already feel pretty betrayed by the big companies of the natural foods world.* Some idealist shoppers feel like they supported small, local businesses as a political act, a post-hippie attack on the corporate food system, only to have those companies cash in as soon as they got a good offer. This isn’t an essay on brand loyalty, but many of those companies did cash in on community goodwill, underdog status, and hippie trappings to help build those businesses so while somewhat naïve, this view is not without basis in reality.

As an example of what Cypress supporters are worried about, given that I imagine very few know who Emmi is, I think Scharffen Berger Chocolate is a good one. Here’s a company that sourced amazing, high quality beans, making a truly distinct chocolate and was made in a factory you could visit or pass by on your daily travels. Tied in to the community, you saw the owners around town and at events (and even shopping at Rainbow). Then they sold to Hershey’s, the antithesis of everything they seemed to be about. Many promises were made by Hershey’s and the old owners that everything would stay the same. A few years later, they closed the factory.

So, who is Emmi? Emmi is a Swiss company that started as a dairy co-op. Emmi brings us the branded “Cave-Aged Gruyere” which is responsible in large part for Americans coming to a better appreciation of that cheese at its correct age (rather than the boring 3 mo version that used to be the only one available). It also makes the very tasty Emmi yogurt which contains misleading packaging and (until recently?) ingredients not found in natural foods stores. They also own Roth Kase Cheese in Wisconsin. I can attest that they put a ton of money into making Roth Kase cheese much better and more consistent than it had been in the past. Roth Kase used to be known for winning competitions with great cheese and then trying to pass off much younger cheese as the same thing. Emmi put a stop to that for sure and I appreciate them for that.

But here’s the thing with Cypress Grove. Mary Keehn, over the last 30 years, has created some of the best goat cheese in the country. But she’s in her mid-60s now. Cheese and dairy (as well as most farming) is all about family succession. What does a responsible member of a rural community do when they start thinking of retirement if no family member wants to take over? It’s one of the two main fallacies of the “support family businesses” way of thinking one is being political by what they buy. How many of you out there work in your family business or would if your family had a business? For good or ill, it’s not the way things work anymore for most people, and this is hitting the hippie era back-to-the-landers now in the same way that the current foodie neo-back-to-the-land movement will be hit 30 years from now. Sure there will be exceptions, but in a case like this what are the options: never retire, sell, or close up shop.**

And let’s remember that Cypress Grove is not even the first California goat cheese producer to sell. Laura Chenel sold to a French company a few years ago. Of the big three California goat cheese makers, only Redwood Hill is still locally-owned.

I admit to having a reluctance to wanting to see anything change at Cypress Grove. I have had the privilege of knowing Mary and Bob at Cypress for many years now, and they are truly some of the best people in the dairy business. When the worker co-op conference needed last minute cheese for the Jim Hightower reception they came through within minutes. Any problems with the cheese? I get immediate response. So when I heard the news I wasn’t really excited. There are too many unknowns down the line. But when I thought about what the other options were, including a potential new blow against Humboldt County dairy farmers,*** a rural economy already reeling from the
Humboldt Creamery disaster, and the drop in marijuana prices,**** I realized that this was not the worst option at all.

And really, we should be happy that Mary thought about all this and is saving the jobs that exist and the local dairies that depend on her operation.

I don’t think Emmi will move the operation, which (like the Scharffen Berger example) is what a lot of people worry about. I mean, unlike chocolate where the raw ingredients are brought from around the world, you put the creamery where the milk is. True, down the line they could start using more non-local frozen curd, open a second plant or move their operations, but I don’t really know how moving would make financial sense, especially since it isn’t too long ago that Cypress opened a new, larger plant. Hopefully Emmi will invest in operations and provide more jobs up there.

So, basically, I am not thrilled that Cypress Grove is no longer locally-owned, but it’s certainly better than the alternatives. And hey, it’s not like she sold to Kraft!

*This chart is already out of date, but shows the dynamic
**certainly the Bob’s Red Mill example would be my first choice ideologically
***yes, I consider goat milk dairy farmer even if CMAB doesn’t.
****a potentially much bigger hit if the legalization proposition passes this November

August 24 · 7:00pm – 10:30pm
The Calf and Kid
1531 Melrose Ave Ste C2

The day before the annual American Cheese Society conference and just up the hill at The Calf and Kid 1531 Melrose Ave, Seattle WA 98122. Gordon Edgar will read from his book Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge and Sheana Davis, The Epicurean Connection, will serve some hecka good Northern California cheeses including Delice de la Vallee, Pt. Reyes Farmstead, Bleating Heart, Valley Ford, and Nicasio Valley cheese companies. The event is free and open to everyone, not just conference attendees.

Then at the conference, August 26 — 9:30-10 AM
I will be signing copies of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge at the ACS bookstore during the morning “networking break”. Come say hi! Book signings can be quite humbling.

No, instead I ended up doing odd tasks. I enjoyed my tasks, don’t get me wrong, but between not getting my shift covered on Saturday and sleeping in on Sunday I missed pretty much the whole event.

My best task – being one of the few Bay Area co-op folks with a car — was getting to pick up and drop off our keynote speaker, Jim Hightower. Oddly enough, Hightower was actually the keynote speaker at the Cheese conference in Austin last year. Except for my own workplace and hanging out with Cheeseboard folks, those two parts of my life do not often collide!

If you have never heard Jim Hightower speak, he is one of the best: energizing, funny, populist, and smart. Laurie used to listen to his Ag reports when he was the Agricultural Commissioner of Texas and she was growing up, so I borrowed some of her Texan credibility by mentioning her a lot. I am pleased to say that Commissioner Hightower was great one-on-one as well. Good thing, since we hit traffic and had about an hour in the car together on the way to his hotel.

The other thing I got to do was set up cheese for the conference’s opening reception. I got one of those last Wednesday saying that the food donation for Friday hadn’t come through and did I have any old cheese lying around… I put out the word and we ended up having quite a spread! Check it out:

(Big, big thanks to Maxx at Marin French Cheese, Bob at Cypress Grove Chevre, and Jesse S.)

This got devoured! The co-op people were hungry after a long day of cooperating. I replenished this table a couple of times and still there was little left but scraps after the hour and a half reception. (Don’t tell anyone but Laurie and I ducked out for chile rellano burritos midway through)

For more coverage of actual conference content, check out The Workers’ Paradise blog written by John McNamera of Union Cab in Madison, WI.