Claudia Lucero of Portland’s  Urban Cheesecraft was recently featured in this great short video by the folks at Etsy (where she sells home cheesemaking kits and products). Watch the video, then click here to shop!

Urban Cheesecraft from Etsy on Vimeo.

Results are in once again for this year’s 2011 American Cheese Society competition. The contest has been growing steadily each year and set yet another record in 2011 with over 1,600 cheeses entered. One of the stories this time around was the Canadian dominance in many categories. Perhaps because the contest and conference were held in Montreal this year, Canadian cheesemakers felt empowered to enter  – and as the results show, the cheese up north is that good! I can certainly vouch for the cheeses of British Columbia, which are consistently outstanding…but more on that later.

Because there’s other big news for local cheese lovers of the Pacific NW – HUGE honors go to owners David Gremmels & Cary Bryant and all of the folks at Oregon’s Rogue Creamery, who took the coveted Best in Show for the second time in three years for their fantastic and amazing Rogue River Blue.

Pacific Northwest cheesemakers took 25 ribbons overall this year – 26 if you count the Best in Show award. That’s down quite a bit from 42 last year, when the competition was held in our backyard, i.e. Seattle. (See last year’s results here).

Here are the 2011 local winners:

Overall Best in Show

Rogue River Blue – Rogue Creamery (OR)

♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese (WA)

3rd Place – Original Recipe Sheep’s Milk or Mixed Milk – Flagsheep

2nd Place – Cheddar (Extra Mature 25-48 mo) – 4 yr Flagship Reserve

1st Place -   Cheddar w/ Peppers  – Marco Polo Reserve

3rd Place -  Smoked Cheeses, Cheddar – Flagship (smoked)

3rd Place – Cheddar, Wrapped in Cloth – Flagship Reserve

Briar Rose Creamery (OR)

1st Place – Fresh Goat’s Milk Cheese/Flavor Added – Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles

Goat’s Pride Dairy (BC)

3rd Place – Feta (Goat’s Milk)

3rd Place – Feta (Flavor Added) – Cranberry Caprabella

Happy Days Dairies (BC)

2nd Place – Marinated Cheeses – Goat Cheese in Herbs & Oil

3rd Place – Cultured Products (Goat’s Milk) – Goat’s Milk Kefir

3rd Place -  Cheese Spreads – Probiotic Cheese Spread

Lark’s Meadow Farm (ID)

3rd Place – Aged Sheep’s Milk – Dulcinea Extra Reserve

1st Place – Open Category Sheep/Mixed Milk – Dulcinea

Mt. Townsend Creamery (WA)

2nd Place – Smoked Cheeses (Cow’s Milk) – Campfire

Rivers Edge Chevre (OR)

2nd Place – Smoked Cheeses (Open Category) – Up in Smoke

Rogue Creamery (OR)

1st Place – Blue Vein w/ Rind or Exterior Coating – Rogue River Blue

3rd Place – Rindless Blue Vein, Sheep’s Milk/Mixed Milk – Echo Mountain Blue

3rd Place – Cheddar, Sweet Flavorings – Chocolate Stout Cheddar

Samish Bay Cheese Co. (WA)

2nd Place – Hispanic/Portuguese Cheese, Flavor Added – Queso Jalapeno

Tillamook County Creamery Association (OR)

3rd Place – American Originals – Monterey Jack (cow’s milk)

1st Place – American Originals – Colby (cow’s milk)

3rd place  – Cheddar (Extra Mature 25-48 mo) – Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar

3rd Place – Light/ Reduced Fat – Reduced Fat Monterey Jack

Tumalo Farms (OR)

1st Place – Farmstead Cheese (Open Category) – Classico

2nd Place – American Made/International Style – Rimrocker

♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣  ♣

For a complete list of all winners in all categories, see here.

The annual Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival was held July 23, 2011 at Whistler, BC. This year’s winners, Guy McClintock of Vancouver, BC in the men’s division and Lorraine Phan of Richmond, BC in the women’s race won a wheel of cheese as well as two season ski passes to Whistler Blackcomb. Not bad for a cheese festival, eh?

Steve Jones of Portland’s Cheese Bar was declared the winner of the 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational last night in New York City. West coast enthusiasts followed the #cmi11 hashtag on twitter for blow by blow updates through the rounds of intense competition. Steve went into the final round in 7th place but emerged triumphant, beating 39 other cheesemongers from all over the world. Congratulations to Steve!

You may have heard of the delectable Dinah’s cheese…made by Kurt Timmermeister on Vashon Island in Seattle, this camembert-style cow’s milk cheese is on many people’s top ten NW cheese lists. It’s a luscious, buttery, velvety creation that takes you by surprise with its authoritative flavor.

Like many cheeses in the northwest, Dinah’s cheese is a micro-batch creation that’s (until now) been available near the source – which means the Seattle area. But today I’ve got good news for Portlanders….Kurt Timmermeister tells me that thanks to distributor Provvista, we’ll be able to enjoy Dinah’s cheese every day of the week. Look for it at fine Portland cheese shops starting in August! Seriously, Dinah’s Cheese will change how you think about local cheese.

Former site of Guler Cheese Co. in Trout Lake, WA. The above ground part, that is....

If you’ve ever actually been in a natural underground cave you know that it’s not just pitch dark inside the cave, but cold. In the millenia before the invention of refrigeration, this was a useful property, and people living in areas with natural caves took advantage of them to preserve food.

As it happens, we have lots of naturally occurring caves in the Pacific Northwest, the result of dramatic volcanic upheaval that took place thousands and millions of years ago. In particular, the western part of Klickitat County, Washington (in the shadow of Mt. Adams in the south-central part of the state) is full of caves…not only is it a favorite haunt of mushroom and huckleberry hunters, it’s also well known to cave explorers.

This area was settled by dairy farmers in the 1880s, and dairy has been part of the area’s history since then. Once the farmers found the caves (they’re all over the place around there), they used them to store produce like potatoes and apples. Later, they used the caves to store butter and cheese made by the local cooperative creamery.

Fast forward to the 1930s and 40s. At the time, American scientists were spending a lot of time scheming about how to replicate the blue cheeses of France that were no longer being imported into the United States due to political turmoil and World Wars in Europe. Can you see where this is going? An enterprising man named Homer Spencer put two and two together. Spencer, working in conjunction with the USDA, had the bright idea to develop the caves of Klickitat County into something resembling those at Roquefort, France.

more + photos of the cheese caves ——>

Continue reading →

At last, the opening is immiment…..according to owner Kurt Dammeier, the New York outpost of Seattle’s Beecher’s Handmade Cheese will open its doors June 24, 2011.

Enthusiasm has been slowly building – most recently, Eater NY announced the arrival of a giant stainless steel bulk tank and other cheesemaking equipment at the new facility. Like its Seattle outpost, the NYC store will make cheese in-house while-u-watch as well as sell cheese and other goodies. They’ve even got their own cheese in the works – Beecher’s Flatiron cheese, a washed rind cheese aged on premises.

It’s that time of the year again – time to head down to Seattle’s Pike Place Market this coming Saturday and Sunday May 14 & 15th, 2011 for the Seattle Cheese Festival. This is the seventh year (can you believe it?!) that DeLaurenti’s has put on this big cheese event and I’ve no doubt that this year it will be bigger and better than ever.

What you can expect: great seminars (sign up now, before they’re sold out!), lots and lots of cheese, a chef’s stage where you can pick up some tips for cooking with cheese, a wine tent where you can sample lots of great local wine – with a mind to pairing with cheese, of course. There will also be a mozzarella making demo stage and it’s happening basically every hour and a half on both days (schedule here). This is a big, enthusiastic festival brimming over with lots and lots of people with whom you can share your passion for all things cheese.

For the full rundown of events, schedules and/or to volunteer, see the website here.

Marin French Cheese Co. of Petaluma, California, the oldest cheese company in the United States, has been acquired by French cheese conglomerate Rians. Rians (click on the link to hear their cheery theme song) is the same company that purchased Laura Chenel’s Sonoma County, California operation in 2006.

Marin French has been operating for over 100 years in the San Francisco Bay area making mostly French style bloomy rinded cheeses. Starting in 1865 as Thompson Brothers Cheese Co., the company made its name selling a ‘breakfast cheese’ (which it still sells) in San Francisco. The company later reorganized into Marin French Cheese Co. Previous owner Jim Boyce, who purchased the company from the founding family in 1998, had apparently been searching for a buyer for several years. His untimely death from liver cancer late last year contributed to his family’s search for a new owner that could preserve the company and its commitment to Marin County’s land and dairy farmers.

This marks the second California cheese company to be acquired by a larger European company in less than a year – Cypress Grove Chevre of Humboldt, California was acquired by Emmi, a Swiss Company, in August of 2010. I think this is indicative of a number of things including the strength of the cheesemakers and cheese industry in California; I am also curious whether or not this is a trend that will continue. Which cheesemaker do you think will be next?