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Cheese: Le forme del
latte, Slow Food International's Biennial Exhibition
Say Formaggio!
By Karen Silverston
This year's edition of Cheese, the world's largest cheese
exhibition, featured well-loved and rarely seen cheeses from
around the world, according to Slow Food USA Executive Director
Erika Lesser, based in Brooklyn, NY.
So large that it is held only every second year, Cheese 2005
attracted 150,000 visitors to Bra, Italy, the heart of the
Piedmont region, from September 16 - 19. Fine examples of
cheese, including cheeses made in America, were offered in
a Cheese Market, in 42 taste workshops, and at the Great Hall,
where someone from every cheesemaking nation could be found.
The four-day Cheese Market held on Via Principi di Piemonte
reserved a special area for 80 projects, or Presidia, accepted
by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. Each project
focuses on cheese important enough to our gastronomic heritage
to be supported by the Foundation. The cheese might be made
from the milk of a nearly extinct breed, for example, or by
using a historic method not known outside a small region.
One of these 80 projects is the American
Raw Milk Cheese Presidium. Founded in October 2003,
by Slow Food USA, in support of farmstead cheesemakers who
are producing aged raw milk cheese, the consortium members
are preserving cheesemaking practices developed long ago,
wherever man has herded goats and sheep, or cared for cows.
For its market offering, Slow Food USA chose a selection
of cheeses from the South, an area of the United States not
widely acknowledged for its cheesemaking, yet producing delicious
examples of aged raw-milk handmade cheeses.
For these southern cheesemakers, cheese is not a sacred cow.
Even when they are recreating a traditional cheese, such as
Chef John Folse's Bulgarian style Kashkaval, these cheesemakers
are reinventing cheese as well as preserving historic practices.
When Slow Food USA chose to focus on the southern cheesemakers
for Cheese 2005, the hurricane season had not yet begun, and
though some of the shipments were delayed by Hurricane Katrina,
the nine participating cheesemakers emerged safely.
"We lost power and phone lines for a few days, and many
phone lines are still down. Katrina might have taken down
all our trees if Camille hadn't already been here. We had
to dump milk and products even though the dairy has a generator,
but the animals are ok and we are, too," said Alyce
Birchenough of Sweet Home Farm
based in Elberta, AL. Birchenough sent Perdido, an
aged raw cow's milk cheese inspired by Morbier, distinguished
by its layer of ash Birchenough makes from herbs growing on
the farm, and a new cheese, Fondrea, also aged raw cow's milk.
"An Italian cheese maker visited our cheese guild and
taught us to make Fontina last year. I named it partly for
Fontina, and partly for him - his name is Andrea."
Because all raw milk cheese sold in the United States must
be aged 60 days or more, cheesemakers pasteurize the milk
used for making fresh cheeses. Liz Parnell,
of Fromagerie Belle Chevre in
Elkmont, AL, makes a variety of fresh goat cheeses from the
pasteurized milk of a nearby herd that is milked just for
her. "Our electricity went on and off for a day and a
half," said Parnell, "and we are still waiting to
hear from our younger family members in Mississippi and Louisiana."
Parnell included Fromage Blanc, which won a first place in
the cultured milk class at the 2005 American Cheese Society
(ACS) competition, goat cheese logs, and Chevre with Sun Dried
Tomatoes, which also won a first place, among the selection
she sent.
Three aged raw milk cheeses made from goat's milk were offered
as well. Judy Schad's
Mont St. Francis is named for a monastery near Capriole,
her Greenville, IN, farm. Mont St. Francis
is a semi-hard washed rind cheese with a pungent aroma typical
of washed rind cheeses, and also a 2005 ACS winner. Goat
Lady Dairy based in Climax, NC, sent two aged raw milk
cheeses, Goat Lady Gouda, which won a first prize at the 2005
ACS, and Gray's Chapel, a semi-hard washed rind cheese.
Aged raw milk cheeses from two farms in Virginia were on
the United States Presidium table. From Everona
Dairy in Rapidan, VA, Dr. Pat
Elliott sent two aged raw milk cheeses made from the
milk of her Friesian ewes: Piedmont, a semi-hard natural rinded
rich buttery cheese which won first prize in the ACS 2005
farmstead sheep milk cheese category, and Cracked Pepper.
Also from Virginia, Rick and Helen
Feete of Meadow Creek Dairy,
a sustainable family farm in Galax with only Jersey cows,
sent two aged raw milk farmstead cheeses, Mountaineer, aged
a minimum of six months, and Grayson, a semi-soft, creamy
and supple washed rind cheese.
Like Rick and Helen Feete, Desiree
and Al Wehner of Sweet Grass
Dairy in Thomasville, GA, use sustainable practices
and not only raise Jersey cows, but also goats. They produce
aged raw milk cheeses and younger cheeses from pasteurized
milk of the cows and the goats. They've trained son-in-law
Jeremy Little to make the cheese. Sweet Grass sent Myrtlewood,
a raw cow's milk hard cheese aged 120 days, inspired by a
French Pyrenees cheese. Myrtlewood's dark greenish, brownish
natural rind develops from being washed with a mixture of
olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and the leaves of the wax
myrtle, an aromatic native plant.
Last, from Dallas, Texas, came Blanca Bianca, the aged raw
milk cow's milk cheese that Paula Lambert
of Mozzarella Company created
in August 2003 to help Slow Food Dallas raise funds for the
newly founded Raw Milk Farmstead Cheese consortium. Unnamed
at its October 2003 debut, Blanca Bianca is becoming known
as a delicious defender of tradition. Washed with white wine
daily during maturation, Blanca Bianca develops a reddish
rind with a pungent aroma. The rind protects the creamy soft
paste and contributes to the elegant tangy flavor.
Beyond the Slow Food USA Presidium table, other American-made
cheeses made appearances in workshops such as Sunday's West
Coast Goat Cheeses and Monday's Goats of the World, Unite!
Workshop participants tasted cheese from Jan
and Chris Twohy of Yerba Santa
Dairy, based in Lakeport, CA; Soyoung
Scanlon of Andante Dairy,
based in Santa Rosa, CA; Mary Keehn
of Cypress Grove Chevre, based
in Arcata, CA; Pierre Kolisch
of Juniper Grove Farm, based
in Redmond, OR; and Sally Jackson,
of Sally Jackson Cheeses based
in Oroville, WA.
Friday's Tasting The Blues workshop featuring blue cheeses
presented with passito and sweet wines included Rogue River
Blue, from David Gremmels of
Rogue Creamery, based in Central
Point, OR, along with Stilton, Cabrales, Verde di Frabosa,
and Persillé du Malzieu. Rogue River Blue, semi-soft,
creamy, and natural rinded, is made in late spring from raw
cow's milk and aged until mid-July to mid-August, when it
is wrapped in pear brandy soaked grape leaves and further
aged, then released at a minimum of one year.
The public met goat cheese makers in the House of Goat Cheeses
at Piazza XX Settembre, and sheep's milk cheesemakers lined
the Street of the Shepherds. Visitors also meandered the Great
Hall, trying examples of certified organic cheeses, and booked
dinners featuring local and regional fare. Diners experienced
a careful selection of fresh ingredients, appropriate wines
to accompany the dishes, and a convivial table - whether a
35Euro dinner at the Osteria or a 120Euro dinner in a castle.
Some taste workshops were led by English speaking affineurs,
cheesemongers and cheese authorities. Kevin
Sheridan, of Sheridan's Cheesemongers, Dublin, Ireland
guided the Irish Raw Milk Cheeses workshop where cheeses from
all eight producers in the Irish Raw Milk Presidium were available
for tasting, including the washed rind Durrus. Juliet
Harbutt, cheese authority, creator of the British Cheese
Awards, and author, led the Cheeses of the Scottish Highlands
and Islands workshop, in which some of the cheeses were made
from milk of the rare Ayrshire breed. Randolph
Hodgson of Neal's Yard Dairy in London guided the British
PDO Blue Cheeses workshop that included a tasting of Stilton
in the various stages of its evolution, Dovedale, Buxton Blue,
and Dorset Blue.
Finally, in the Great Hall of Cheese, among the cheeses offered
from every nation, visitors tasted Texas Star, a raw cow's
milk cheese from Veldhuizen Family Farm
in Dublin, Texas.
In fostering an appreciation of cheeses so they are neither
lost, forgotten nor bullied out of the market, Cheese 2005
succeeded in inspiring awareness of food and of the connection
between the land, the animal, and the producer -- no matter
what language was spoken.
# # #
www.cheese.slowfood.com
www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/farmstead_cheese.html
www.andantedairy.com
www.capriolegoatcheese.com
www.cypressgrovechevre.com
www.jfolse.com
www.meadowcreekdairy.com
www.mozzco.com
www.roguecreamery.com
www.sallyjacksoncheeses.com
www.southerncheese.com
www.sweetgrassdairy.com
www.veldhuizencheese.com
www.durruscheese.com
www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk
www.sheridanscheesemongers.com
www.stiltoncheese.com
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