On a recent [amazing] trip down to the Slow Food Canada national meeting, I happened to end up in a restaurant for dinner in Penticton, Cam and Dana happened to be there as well, and the restauranteur happened to introduce us. They’d just been back from foraging, and had a van full of watercress and nettles destined for the dinner … Read More
From Local Farms – The Cheesiry
I left the Cheesiry feeling strangely like I’d just visited an old-world producer – and not simply because of the old-school pecorino they produce. There’s a wonderful vibe from the cheesiry being built into the heart of the family farm’s old cow dairy facilities which on a hot day offers a cool and patina’d experience – and stepping into their … Read More
Would You Buy This Cheese?
This cheese entered my life as a gift. It’s an aged Bressan from Smoky Valley Goat Cheese, and Holly figured the mottled molds atop it would make it unsuitable for sale. She also claimed that this particular batch was so good that if she kept it for herself, she’d eat yet another lovely wheel of it by herself. I’m no … Read More
My Palate and Sinuses will Recover, Honest.
In 2006, a more than fledgling foodie at the time [and the year I started blogging], my wife and I spent a month traveling through western and eastern Europe, seeking regional food specialties. On that trip, having felt I knew cheese well, I went to France for the half-dozenth time, and had a major cheese awakening. Overall, their cheeses, even … Read More
Chocolate Espresso Chevrecake
This was an innovative-idea-to-me, but I googled it and apparently others have already discovered it. Oh well. Originality is not my m.o. Chevrecake. Cheesecake happens to be my all-time-favorite-dessert, and a few years back I spent some time mucking about with an individual [ramekin] sized chocolate espresso cheesecake recipe that I love dearly. It’s my birthday choice. And having recently … Read More
On Building an Urban Cellar
Over the past year or so I’ve been asked by more folks than I anticipated about how to tackle building their own cellar. And the more I find my winter writing heavily dominated by cellar-related adventures, the more I’ve realized that I’ll need to offer a resource about how to actually build a cellar if information about how to put … Read More
Valencay Epiphany
Well as it turns out, it took me a week or so to get to those brownish, fuzzy, kinda brutal looking Valencays that I aged in my cellar for a couple months. And as it turns out, I was wrong. They were not dead, bad, or past. They were SUBLIME. The reason I was cellaring these was to see where … Read More
Cheese Cellar Porn
You take milk. You make cheese. And you stick it in your cellar for months. Food preservation methods like this astonish me. My cheese cellar is low-tech and passively cooled and humidified. No gear. No electronics. No energy consumption. Old-school. Currently holds 90+% humidity and temp is a bit low at 5-6C. I took these photos because Holly asked me … Read More
Goat Cheese Post Mortem
My email this evening to Holly Gale of Smoky Valley Goat Cheese who’s consulting on my cheese cellaring project. “Finally hit an aging hurdle. These Valencays went in there in mid October, so nearly 2 months. They looked like this when they did. They held up really well until the last week or two. What’s interesting is that they seem … Read More
Cellaring Cheese
One of my goals this year was to start to get my feet wet at making cheese. I failed. I have not made cheese. But what has happened is a very happy thing: I’ve become good friends with cheesemaker Holly Gale and have had the opportunity to help their farm in a variety of ways – in exchange for cheese. … Read More
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