Something Tasty: A cheese pairing to try

Calderwood

As a washed, alpine, raw, award-winning, hay-ripened cheese: Calderwood is my pick to go with all the beers your Oktoberfest can handle.

I just spent some time at Jasper Hill Farms in Vermont, and one of many things I really appreciate is how much they want to educate people on how integral feed quality is for cheesemaking. It really is true that the quality of the cheese relies of the quality of the milk, which relies on the quality of the feed.

You can literally measure the amount of cheese you are able to make by how much quality hay you have.

If you are a fan of Alp Blossom, where the rind is the same array of flowers, herbs, and grasses the cows are eating, you should try to get your hands on some Calderwood exclusively at Saxelby Cheesemongers.

It’s nutty, earthy, unique, and bonus— it’s visually very fun on a fall/spooky cheese board. Throw some Moses Reaper on there and bring a Jasper Hill haunted hayride to your living room.

Maybe it’ll be at one of our upcoming classes 😏 . There’s a lot of them! Tis the season! If you’re in New York City check out the calendar of upcoming events and come on by. Many e-mails to come about these.

Want a class brought to you? Send us an e-mail at [email protected]!

Something True: A truth about myself

The Hay Fire

Here’s the truth.

I’ve known my whole life that a hay fire was one of my dad’s worst fears.

A few years ago my family came to New York to visit me. When you have a dairy, it’s a big deal to get away. It requires a ton of preparation and trust in good people to keep a business let alone a population of living beings alive. So it doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it’s pretty special.

When their plane landed, my dad got the call. After 40 years of successfully avoiding it— a hay fire broke out during their flight.

No animals or people were harmed, but it’s really difficult to describe how big of a deal a hay fire is, if you aren’t familiar with farming. Think hundreds of thousands of dollars burned, and months, if not years of food security for the animals gone. As you now know, feed is everything.

It was a huge loss. My dad had a bunch of calls to take, and people to contact immediately and over the next few days…but he was surprisingly calm?

This was his biggest fear realized. So I asked him, “why aren’t you freaking out right now?”

And I’ve been thinking about what he said for years. He said:

“My biggest fear happened. So I’m not afraid of it anymore.”

This has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ll tell you why next week.

Farm to Fable: How food shows up in storytelling 

Fire for Good in The Bear

Much like water or anything else, really— fire can be destructive, or life-giving. In one of the first episodes of The Bear, a fuse blows and all their power is gone. Not electric, no gas. Death for a restaurant. So to avoid losing all the food in the building and a day without service forcing them to permanently close— Sydney sets up a makeshift fire grill in the parking lot and gets to work.

An example of fire saving instead of destroying…but fire shows up in this show a few different ways. If you haven’t started The Bear yet, what are you waiting for??

Until next time,

Anne-Marie

P.S. - Sunday Scaries

A terrifying AI image to help us all rest knowing AI bots could never replace a real human artist:

This week the prompt was “a bear eating cheese sitting on a pile of hay”

Why is this so depressing??? Probably because he’s sitting on the cheese instead of eating it.

Eat your cheese this week, don’t sit on it (literally or metaphorically).

www.annemariepietersma.com