We came to Switzerland to visit Benno and Nora, friends we had met long long ago in Costa Rica. Back in 2015, she worked at a winery, and his family owned a dairy farm in the AOP region for Gruyère cheese. Then fast forward 7 years to today, and now they live on that dairy farm. Benno runs the show, caring for the cows, plowing the cornfields and potatoes. They’re full blown farmers. Read More…
It was getting close to the end of our time in Pennsylvania and Aunt Kathy turned to me and said “We haven’t done our wine and cheese pairing yet!” That was all I needed to get planning. During our next trip to Aldi, I found a couple cheeses I’d like to contribute. I grabbed a bottle of Prosecco too just to mix things up a little for this crowd. Then a few days later, we took a trip out to Reverie Creamery, our go to cheese shop in the area. We always enjoy their Tom but of course we started tasting and found two more to bring. Read More…
During our time in Costa Rica (much longer than we expected) we’ve been finding some really nice wines and cheeses. This trip we’ve had more purchasing options since we’ve been traveling around the country more. This has allowed us to find brands and shops that we never visited before. We’re also aware that it isn’t crucial to refrigerate cheese immediately so we’ve been fine taking the chance of driving home with it for a couple hours without thinking twice. Read More…
When I was choosing which classes to sign up for at The Art of Cheese, the one with bloomy rinds kept jumping out at me. This was a topic discussed at the Cheese Bootcamp but it was in the beginning of the course and I only attended the end. But, at the end of the bootcamp, Kate asked me if I’d like to take a wheel of camembert to age at home. Always being up for a challenge, I said yes. Read More…
I tasted my first blue cheese from Rogue Creamery, back when we lived in San Francisco, CA. There was a terrific corner cheese shop that carried it as well as having events where Rogue’s sales representatives would come in to educate and give out samples. Being new to the West Coast then, I just figured Oregon was close by and I could take a quick trip out to see their facilities. Well time passed and we moved away from CA before I ever had a chance to get out to Oregon. I loved those blue cheeses and had this draw to go see where they were made. Read More…
My second class at The Art of Cheese was the Cheesemaking Bootcamp. We covered brining your cheese, piercing a blue cheese, aging your cheese with rubs, washes and leaf wraps, an introduction to alpine and swiss cheeses as well as the process of cheddaring. For your sanity, and mine, we’ll be limiting todays entry to the cheddaring process and the cheeses we tasted that day. Did you know that there’s a separate process involved to make cheddar cheese than other cheeses, well you’ll get to learn all about it today! Read More…
We spent a couple days in Fort Collins, CO with new friends, all because of a cheese class. I met Suzanne at the Cheese bootcamp, held at The Art of Cheese and after being partners in class, she invited Neil and I out to see her town. I found a tourism magazine for Fort Collins and saw an ad for The Welsh Rabbit. When she suggested we go there, I knew we were starting a long lasting friendship! Read More…
When we chose to come out to Longmont, CO, we had no idea that there would be a cheese school 15 minutes from our rental. What an amazing bonus for our stay here! Neil and I have “dipped our toes” into cheesemaking but just handful of times so when we found out we could attend Cheesemaking classes, we figured it was our duty as cheeselovers. Our friend Jinnee was in town when the class occurred, so we all attended together. Jinnee said, “I love hanging out with you guys, we always eat so well!” Read More…
“Cheese is just preserved milk”
I was so excited when my friend Jo told me there would be a Cheese Event at the Durham East Branch library. Yay, cheese and the library! It was even free. The event was sponsored by a grocery store called the Durham Co-Op and the theme was sheep and goat cheeses. Mmm stinky barnyard cheeses, just what I prefer! Read More…
We visited Asheville, NC, a few weeks back with our friend Doris. While we were coming up with ideas for the trip, I searched for local cheese shops. We were staying in Fletcher which is about a 20 minute drive outside of Asheville. Imagine our surprise when we found Looking Glass Creamery on that list and it was only a few minutes away from our AirBnB. We chose to go there Saturday in the early afternoon. The timing couldn’t have better as the sky opened up into thunderstorms just as we walked into the shop. Read More…