Pacific Northwest Cheese Project

Northwest Cheesemakers Win Awards at 2006 ACS Conference

The results are in, and Northwest Cheesemakers pulled in an impressive amount of awards at the American Cheese Society conference this past week. For the complete list of categories and winners, see the ACS website here. Here's a rundown of our regional winners, in alphabetical order:

Ballard Family Dairy & Cheese

  Idaho Garlic Herb Cheese Curds  – 2nd Place Flavored Cheeses (Herbs, Spices, etc.)

Beecher's Handmade Cheese

  Flagship Reserve – 3rd Place Cow's Milk Cheddar Aged Less Than 12 Months

  Flagship (Aged 2 yrs) – 2nd Place Mature Cheddars Aged between 25 and 35 Months

  No Woman – 2nd Place Flavored Cheeses (Flavored with Chile Peppers, All Milks)

Black Sheep Creamery

   Feta – 2nd Place Feta (Sheep's Milk)

Estrella Family Creamery

  Bea Truffled – 2nd Place Farmstead Cheeses (Open Category, Cow's Milk)

  Grisdale Goat – 1st Place Aged Goat's Milk Cheeses

  Caldwell Crik Chevrette – 1st Place Farmstead Cheeses (Goat's Milk)

Fraga Farm

  Aged Raw Feta – 1st Place Feta (Goat's Milk)

Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy

  Pacific Porcini – 3rd Place Washed Rind Cheees (Goat's Milk)

Rogue Creamery

  Chipotle Cheddar – 2nd Place  Cheddars (Flavor Added)

Rollingstone Chevre

  Brandywine (banon style) – 1st Place, Fresh Goat's Milk Cheeses (Flavor Added)

Silver Falls Creamery

  Chevre – 2nd Place  Fresh Goat's Milk Cheeses

Tumalo Farms

  Peppercorn – 1st Place Flavored Cheeses (Peppercorns or Savory Spices)

  Pond Hopper – 1st Place Flavored Cheeses (Goat's Milk)

Washington State University Creamery

  Fire! – 2nd Place Low Fat/Low Salt Cheeses (Flavor Added)

Willamette Valley Cheese Company

  Farmstead Gouda – 2nd Place  American Made/International Style

  Queso Fresco – 1st Place Hispanic & Portugese Style Cheeses (Fresh Unripened)

  Cumin Gouda – 1st Place Farmstead Cheeses - Flavor Added (All Milks)

  Wine Pomace Gouda – 2nd Place  Marinated Cheeses (Cow's Milk)

  Perrydale – 3rd Place American Originals (Sheep's Milk or Mixed Milks)

Rainhaven Goat Dairy

Northwest cheesemakers are springing up all over the place! Debbie Higgins from Rainhaven Goat Dairy in Duvall, WA (northeast of Seattle) recently received her license to make cheese. She's been a licensed raw goat milk provider since 2005. Debbie plans to concentrate on raw milk aged cheeses, so she says we can expect to start seeing her products sometime later this fall or early winter.

Debbie Higgins

Rainhaven Goat Dairy

(425) 788-7735

American Cheese Society Conference Update

It's a big month for cheese in the city of Portland...you may have heard about this already?... the American Cheese Society Conference is being held at the downtown Portland Hilton July 20-22nd. While conference seminars and individual meetings are sold out, there are several ways that you can still be a part of this cheese extravaganza:

1. Be a volunteer. Email mwilson-at-hqtrs-dot-com or acs-at-hqtrs-dot-com for additional information about volunteer opportunities.

2. Buy tickets for the Festival of Cheese. This promises to be quite the cheese party, and will be held on Saturday July 22 at the Portland Hilton starting at 4PM. Tickets are still available but this event will likely sell out, so I advise getting your tickets sooner rather than later! For ticket info check the ACS website here.

3. Visit the Great Cheese Sell Off. Over 900 cheeses have been entered in this years ACS cheese competition... that's several hundred more than last year. You might ask yourself, what do they do with all of that cheese when the judging is completed? The answer is that they offload it at this grand cheese flea market. This is your chance to buy cheese that you likely won't see in Portland again at huge discounts. Best of all, no tickets are required! The Sell Off will be held at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market at Orenco Station on Sunday July 23rd.

4. Visit Participating Restaurants.  Portland restaurants are pairing up with visiting cheesemakers, developing courses and menus around the artisan's cheeses. The following is a list of participating Portland restaurants alongside their cheesemaker pairing. For more info on either the restaurant or the cheese company, follow the individual link.

1.   Bluehour ----- Grafton Village Cheese Co.

2.   Caprial's Bistro ----- Carr Valley Cheese Co.

3.  Carafe ----- Redwood Hill Farm

4.  Castagna ----- Old Chatham Sheepherding Co.

5.  clarklewis ----- Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese

6.  Fenouil ----- Uplands Dairy

7.  Fife ----- Roth Kase USA

8.  Heathman Restaurant ----- Vermont Butter & Cheese Co.

9.  Higgins Restaurant ----- Cypress Grove Chevre

10.  Paley's Place ----- Beecher's Handmade Cheese

11.  Park Kitchen ----- Zingerman's

12.  Pazzo Ristorante ----- Tillamook Cooperative Creamery

13.  Red Star Tavery & Roast House ----- Fiscalini Cheese Co.

14.  Southpark ----- Fairbault Dairy

15.  Tabla ----- Cabot Creamery of Vermont

16.  Wildwood Restaurant ----- Rogue Creamery

American Cheese Society Conference Volunteer Info

You may have heard that the American Cheese Society Conference has been sold out - that part is true. But you can still get involved....to sign up for volunteer opportunities, send an email to either mwilson-at-hqtrs-dot-com or acs-at-hqtrs-dot-com and provide your phone, email address and areas you might be interested in helping.

Tickets are still available, however, for the Festival of Cheese which will be held on Saturday night July 22nd.

For further details about the Conference, to buy tickets for the Festival of Cheese, and/or to learn about additional events that will be held in conjunction with the Conference check the ACS web site here.

See you there!

Portland Cheese Luminaries Profiled

Over the next few weeks you will likely be reading more about cheese in the local media than you could have imagined possible....and it's about time! That's because the American Cheese Society Conference in Portland is fast approaching (for more information and/or to register, click here). Today's media installment: a great profile by Roger Porter in today's Willamette Week of two of Portland's cheese cognoscenti - David Schiffelbein of Curds & Whey and Steve Jones of Steve's Cheese.

Mt. Townsend Creamery Sponsors Cheesemaking Courses

Vermont farmstead cheesemaking pioneer and renowned teacher Peter Dixon will be returning to Western Washington Aug 4-6, 2006 to teach two cheesemaking courses at the Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend, Washington.

Friday and Saturday Aug 4 and 5th will be a two day introduction to farmstead/artisan cheesemaking, with a mix of lecture and hands-on activity.  Sunday Aug 6th will be a one day hand-pulled mozzarella intensive.

The two day workshop on Friday and Saturday will allow participants to experience all aspects of the cheesemaking process for a variety of cheese types. Topics include: milk and cheese chemistry, heating of raw milk, pasteurizing, uses of cultures and rennet, cutting and hooping of the curds and finally the aging of the cheese in the coolers.  This is a hands-on cheesemaking class.  Each participant will be making and taking home cheese as well as learning about the history and science of cheese craft.  A variety of different cheeses will be made, from fresh cheese to soft-ripened, to hard aged cheese.

Sunday Aug 4th will be your chance to learn how to make fresh mozzarella in your own kitchen.  The class will start with milk and end with each student taking home 3 pounds of fresh mozzarella.  In between Peter will demonstrate the art and talk about the science of making pasta filata cheeses such as mozzarella and provolone.

Workshop hours run from 8:30 am to 5pm.  Lunch, snacks and beverages are provided on both days.  Port Townsend has many nearby accommodations, call Mt Townsend Creamery for recommendations. Each class is open to 15 people, tuition for the intro to farmstead artisan cheese is $275, Sunday’s mozzarella intensive is $100.  Package price for all three days is $350.  Registration is first come, first serve.  To register, or for more information contact Mt. Townsend Creamery at 360-379-0895 or email info- at - mttownsendcreamery.com.

Peter Dixon began making cheese on his family’s Vermont dairy farm over twenty five years ago.  He was involved in the early operations of many of Vermont’s most successful small scale cheesemakers- Vermont Shepard, Vermont Butter and Cheese, and Shelburne Farms.  He went on to earn an MS in Dairy science from UVM, and operated his own successful farmstead cheesemaking business for several years.  He has traveled the world researching and teaching small scale cheesemaking and now works primarily as a consultant and teacher.  For more information on Peter Dixon see his website here.

Mt.Townsend Creamery, the Olympic Peninsula’s first artisan cheese company,  makes handcrafted cheese from the milk of grass-based North Olympic family dairy farms.  It is located is approximately one and a half miles west of downtown Port Townsend on Sherman St. south of Sims Way.  For information or registration contact us at 360-379-0895 or info-at-mttownsendcreamery.com.

Rivers Edge Chevre Featured on Cooking Up a Story

Pat Morford from Rivers Edge Chevre is profiled here on an interesting web site I've not seen before called Cooking Up a Story. It's a well done short video worth checking out....David Schiffelbein from Curds & Whey also shares some words of wisdom on farmstead cheese. Also keep an eye on Sasha and Michael's travels over at Cheese By Hand - Pat will be one of their stops as they make their way to Oregon.