Tag: cheesemaker
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How Small Creameries Hang in the Balance of Quarantine and Coronavirus
(with Links to Support Local Producers) It was a drizzly Friday afternoon in mid-March when Lynn Swanson received the call that Seattle’s farmers markets were closing. Lynn was distraught about the news for good reason: she makes sheep’s milk cheeses on the farmstead creamery that she and her husband own on about 80 acres of…
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A Wisconsin Cheese Journey: Part 1
Wisconsin: it’s America’s dairy land, the state that generally comes to mind when people think about cheese in the US. As a champion for locavore eating, I have appreciated Wisconsin’s (and Vermont’s, California’s, etc.) cheesemaking heritage, but have focused my attention on the fantastic cheeses made close to home in the Pacific Northwest. Nonetheless, I…
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Fantello Farmstead Creamery: A New Washington Cheesemaker to Know
It was a grayish, early spring day in western Washington when I set out to spend my day off doing what I do best: getting cheesy. I drove from my home in Federal Way through the town of Auburn and into an agricultural area beyond that I had never before explored. The space between Auburn…
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The Non-Melting Cheese That Should Be a Staple in Your Kitchen
One of my favorite cheese puns is a joke about Halloumi: “What does cheese say when it looks in the mirror?” “Hallou-mi!” I’m not just a fan of this pun because it teaches you how to pronounce the name of a cheese that is obviously sassy and feeling itself, but also because it is about…
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Lost Peacock Creamery: From #ThatFarmLife to Fabulous Farmstead Cheese
In a recent post, I briefly explained the difference between artisanal and industrial cheeses. But among artisanal cheeses, there are also differences. There are cheeses that boast of being ‘farmstead’ cheeses, and there are those that are simply ‘artisan’ or ‘specialty.’ Artisan cheeses should be made by hand, or with as little help as possible…
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Finding the ‘Taste of Place’ in Cascadia Creamery’s Cheese
This is a story about some of Washington state’s finest cheeses and the fairytale-perfect land where they are made. If you drive south on Interstate 5 from Seattle until you cross the Columbia River into Oregon, take Highway 84 East at Portland. The highway meanders along the south bank of the river, treating you to…
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Three Reasons to Treat Yo-self to a Cheesemaking Class
About a year and a half ago, we hired a new baby cheesemonger named Janna at the shop I worked at in West Seattle. One of her previous cheese qualifications was that she had taken a cheesemaking workshop from another local grocery store, PCC Community Markets. Listening to Janna talk about the class, it seemed…
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What’s the Deal with Raw Cheese, Anyway?
A woman came into my shop recently searching for “raw cheeses.” She didn’t care what kinds they were, so long as they were raw. This was exciting to me as a cheesemonger, given the hullabaloo this year over raw-milk cheeses. In case you weren’t aware, one person died and seven people became sick with Listeriosis…
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Upcoming: Three Days of Cheese!
There’s this wonderful thing in the Bay Area called The Cheese School of San Francisco. They offer classes and tastings year-round, but twice a year they offer a three-day intensive course for cheese professionals. It just so happens that two very lucky Seattle cheesemongers are attending the school’s March course, and I happen to be…
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Clothbound Cheddars: Unveiled
We all know what cheddar is; we’ve seen it, we’ve eaten it, we (most of us) like it. But while the name “cheddar” already conjures a place (England), a process (cheddaring), and a style of cheese (duh), the types of cheddars are diverse—adding layers of meaning to a common term. Today I’m interested in just…
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Serious Sunday Puns for Curd Nerds
Not only do my co-mongers like to say that Sunday is the best day of the week—because it’s Sunday Pun-day, naturally—but they also often say they just can’t believe I am able to keep churning out bad cheese jokes at the rate I do. It’s hard work, but somebody has got to do it. Also,…
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Super Cheesy Jokes for Super Bowl Sunday
Cover image courtesy of Olympia Provisions. The other cheesemongers in my life like to say that “Sunday is the best day!” Why? Because it’s Sunday Pun-Day. In keeping with tradition–in a show of thanks to all the super cheesy people who read this blog–I present to you a slew of super cheesy jokes, hand crafted…
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Adventures in Home Cheesemaking
[metaslider id=536] Last summer, we put up a display that included some Urban Cheesecraft cheesemaking kits and some books on cheesemaking. I felt compelled to try out the deluxe kit at home, not just to make sure I could accurately sell the kits or help customers troubleshoot, but also out of a genuine interest in…
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Behold, the Mighty Mite!
Let’s face it, cheese is no angel. And by that, I mean it’s not a purified, pristine substance. Cheese is home to happy, thriving molds, yeasts, and bacteria. I know a lot of people would rather not admit this is true, just as they would rather live in blissful ignorance that their ground beef came…
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The 12 Days of Cheesemas
In honor of the holiday season that surrounds us, and in lieu of a Sunday Pun-Day, I give you the gift of poetry and music. (Press play, and then scroll down. Feel free to sing along–preferably at the top of your lungs, and with feeling.) The 12 Days of Cheesemas On the first day…