45 years for Redwood Hill! This sculpture is from the Fancy Food Show last January. Amazing!
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Tagged cheese, cheese pics, redwood hill, the year in cheese pictures 2013
One of my favorite new (to me) cheeses this year. Everton from Jacobs and Brichford… More like a well-aged Comte than any other American-made cheese I’ve tried. The last wheel we got was also super oniony in that good Alpine way. Mmmmmmm.
For the last ten days of the year I will share some of my favorite 2013 cheese photos. You ready? Here we go!
Delivery of Valley Ford Cheese. Much of it made on my birthday in 2012!
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Tagged cheese, cheese pics, the year in cheese pictures 2013, valley ford cheese
1. Isn’t this just about the most gorgeous cheese label you’ve ever seen?
2. I love that Rush Creek is now a Thanksgiving tradition. I wish we could get enough Winnimere to make that an Xmas one, but I get it! I get it! Rush Creek for xmas too!
3. Here’s one of my Thanksgiving cheese plates. My family got the more American plate.
(From front left, clockwise: Anton’s Peppered Ass Cheese, Cremeux de Bourgnone, Camembert di Bufala, Scharfer Maxx Extra, Molleux du Revard)
4. Still collecting Cheesemonger Selfies. More are being posted all the time. Email me your pics and I’ll put em up. (gordon.zola.edgar at gmail dot com)
5. If you are local and are not on the invite list for the monthly cheesemonger gatherings, go here, or hit me up at that email as well and I’ll put you on the list. It is not exclusive!
6. I really cannot create any real content you know… it’s that time of the year.
7. I should be able to officially announce my book contract in my next post though. I would be able to now except for a couple of e-book details that weren’t in my last contract. Things have changed!
8. I am going to post a picture a day starting tomorrow. My cheese memories of 2013. You likely have seen ‘em before, but whatever. True beauty doesn’t fade.
I can tell I am in full holiday rush mode because when a customer asked, “What does ‘Bonne Bouche’ mean?” I replied, “It means Fucking Awesome!”
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Clearly I do not have enough time to make consistent blog posts. I think I will have to resort to lists until the end of the year.
1. I got asked again by a customer “Who ghost wrote your book for you?” Because I know you are curious, usually people ask because they want a recommendation on who to hire to help them develop a personal brand. And no, they usually have not read my book.
2. Not that there’s anything wrong with not having read my book. Most Americans have not read my book.
3. We adopted an Alp from the awesome Caroline Hostettler. Program info is here. Basically, this is a program to support cheesemakers who are still doing the traditional seasonal migration of animals up and down the Alps (also known as transhumance). Our cheese is awesome. Made between 6500-8000 ft, it is buttery, grassy, nutty, and milky sweet. It is on the younger side so it doesn’t have the onioniness pungency of a more aged Swiss Alp Cheese, but it is much more complex than most of the young Swisses that come into the US.
4. We got the party Alp, Obern Galm. Here’s the party alp theme song (I don’t know why I cannot get it to embed)
5. Here’s cheesemonger Andreas with the first two wheels:
6. Here’s my selfie with the adopted Alp cheese.
Don’t forget to post your cheesemonger selfie here:
7. Cheesemonger gatherings are awesome. I think cheesemongers everywhere should have them. Cheese is not necessary for the event.
8. It is feeling like the holidays in the cooler.
9. Here is one of my current favorite cheeses. Amazingly low price for what you get:
10. Here’s some more cheese pr0n for you filthy people:
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Tagged alpine cheese, caroline hostettler, cheese, cheese pr0n, lists
Oh what the heck. I am too busy to write anything about cheese these days. You probably are too. But why don’t we collect Cheesemonger selfies with cheese. It will amuse us all during the coming craziness:
Here’s mine. In the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative cheese prep area with Alpkaese from Obern Galm, Switzerland. Cheese was made between 6500-8000 ft.
Post yours in the comments! (or send me yours via email if you can’t figure out how to post them gordonzolaedgar at gmail dot com)
Forever Cheese table at the Food Matters Again holiday show:
I know I haven’t had a chance to update here much but I was kind of shocked when I saw my last update was from the ACS. That feels like a million years ago. I mean, geez, the holiday pre-orders are rolling into the store already.
So, I think I’m going to just photo dump on you all this week. Here are some cheese highlights of the last few months:
Let’s start with Saxon Creamery in Wisconsin:
Hennings in Wisconsin. We get our Cheddar curd from here:
They have an awesome cheese equipment museum too!
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Tagged ACS 2013, Henning's, saxon creamery, wisconsin 2011, wisconsin cheese
In addition to the cheeses previously mentioned in my Best of Show entry – all of which I loved – These are the other cheeses that caught my tongue at this year’s conference:
During the judging, I tasted this one and was blown away even though I had no idea who made it (and I assumed it was a Oaxaca). Braided Caciocavera from Loveras Market in Oklahoma? Ok, I see why I didn’t already know it. To make it even more special, I keep reading it as “Lovers Market” which seems extra sweet.
Next, a cheese we already carry and think is awesome, Boonter’s Blue from Pennyroyal Farmstead in Boonville, CA. A mix of sheep and goat milk (though not always) this is the kind of blue I think of as “Basque Style” even though I don’t know if it’s really true. Fudgy, medium-strength blue and you can taste the tang of the goat and nuttiness of the sheep milk.
Ten years ago, everyone would have been raving about the Florry’s Truckle from the Milton Creamery in Iowa. Now – with Jasper Hill, Fiscalini, Beecher’s, Avonlea, etc. – we expect North Americans to make amazing traditional style Cheddars. Still this is an awesome cheese from the folks who brought us Prairie Breeze.
Speaking of Jasper Hill, the Willoughby (this is a correction from the original post) right now…. Amazing. Rich, pungent, buttery, yeasty. Definitely in the running for Best of Show by my count.
And, made by Landaff Creamery and aged in the Cellars at Jasper Hill, the Kinsman Ridge is also pretty darn good. As you can see by how little is left.
And, last year I told you how awesome the Arabella from Jacobs and Brichford was. This year, their Overton blew me away. I don’t think I’ve ever had a US cheese that tasted so much like a well-aged Comte. I guess it blew me away so much that I forgot to get a picture so here’s the Arabella again.
Also, pretty much everything from Baetje Farms is can’t-miss. I do not think they can make a bad cheese.
That’s it for now. I am still going through my notes, but these are the cheeses that stuck with me, post-conference.By the way, this tag will let you see the cheeses I have written about as my favorites over the years: American Cheese Society Favorites.
Gordon ("Zola") Edgar 