Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 28, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Leave it to the French to spend their hard-earned tax dollars sponsoring wine and cheese parties here in the U.S and around the world. Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the French government, along with a handful of wine and cheese producers, is spending over $2 million to sponsor these parties in order to "show that French cuisine can be relaxed."
If you want a chance to have the French pay you to throw a party, head on over to the contest form at houseparty.com. One thousand winners will get a 15 percent discount on certain French wines and receive a free gift when ordering French cheeses from specified websites.
Okay, so they're not paying for the whole party, but in these trying economic times, we all need a little stimulus package—even if it's only 15 percent.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 21, 2009 at 1:45 PM
"This is not really the same thing as the government subsidizing (i.e. naturally inflating) the cost of corn, or soybeans."
In these tough economic times, it must be difficult for companies to take the long view on things. Especially one like Grafton Village Cheese, larger than many small-scale artisan producers but still tiny compared to the struggling giants making news on Wall Street Journal covers. But by temporarily subsidizing the dairy farmers they rely on to produce their cheese, this small Vermont cheesemaking collective was in the news yesterday for doing just that.
The price of milk, a commodity traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has fallen almost 40 percent in just one year (just like my 401k!). In March of 2008, a "hundredweight" (abbreviated "cwt." and equal to 100 pounds) of milk cost $18.
In March 2009, the price was at $11.20 per cwt. At prices this low, dairy farmers can hardly sustain their operations. Half that amount could be spent on feed alone.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM
The day before I flew home from Seattle, I received an email from Tami Parr, author of the always-informative Pacific Northwest Cheese Project blog. She proudly announced the release of her first book, Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest. Oh, man, did I wish I'd had this book before going to Seattle.
Largely a guidebook to the small-scale cheese producers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia, the book is similar to Jeffrey Roberts' Atlas of American Cheese. It would be perfect for the intrepid agrotourist with a strong interest in cheese.
For each producer profiled, Parr gives a brief one or two page summary, along with contact information, visitor information (if appropriate), and of course information about the cheeses they make. The book also includes several handy maps in the front so that you can plan your journey accordingly.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 7, 2009 at 3:30 PM
"Beecher's is a great model for the new urban gastronomy—it reminds us city-dwellers that food comes from somewhere."
Photographs courtesy of Beecher's Handmade Cheese
Seattle's Pike Place Market delicately straddles two seemingly antithetical modes: down-home city produce market with plenty of local flair, and crowded tourist trap complete with fishmonger hijinks and overpriced hippie regalia. But to paint this place in such broad strokes is to miss the real beauty of it. What it comes down to for me is that for all the spectacle, a lot of the food you can get at Pike Place is really, seriously good.
Other than the fishmongers, nowhere in the market is food performance as important to the experience than at Beecher's Handmade Cheese, where tourists and locals alike can witness real, high-quality, artisanal cheese being made right before their eyes. To be sure, cheese is a largely rural enterprise, but Beecher's has brought it right into the downtown of a major American city. And yet the place still wouldn't pique my interest if the cheese they made weren't so damn good!
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