Collaborations

The talk in the academic world is on the importance to create collectives of people who are in different fields and disciplines and try to learn from each other. This may sound really obvious, but it has taken a very long time for scholars to get here. Academic endeavor is defined by the strict boundaries set up in the study of the physical and social sciences. The humanities are less strict about this, but they also have their fair share of border patrolling. The idea is to create expertise that can then be utilize to produce wealth, if interested you should read Max Weber.

It is with this in mind, that I have tried to expand my horizons and move away from the self-centered view that my work and my craft is most important and significant alone. I have tried to enter, establish and seek collaborations with people doing amazing food projects. Here I present to you four new collaborations. More information will be coming up, but this is a little taste of things to follow.

Educating Young Minds

Along with the HSMSE Gastronomy class run by a good friend of mine, we are taking 18 high school students to Flying Pigs Farm in upstate New York to participate in the Farm CampThis school group learns about food production through readings and films but also experiences like taste workshops, visits to farms, markets shops around NYC. Part gastronomy class – part cultural sensitization, the aim of the program is to introduce students to good food and “to expose the kids to new tastes and cultures encouraging an open-mindedness, which in theory would extend to all aspects of the students' lives.” experience.

We are going to Farm Camp to learn about the realities of food production and to gain an understanding of the importance of knowing the source of what we eat. We will be in the farm on 5/6 June and you will be able to follow us on twitter by tracking the #GastroCamp or the #FarmCamp tags.

Other twitter feeds to follow are: @FarmCampNY @FlyingPigsFarm I will have a small contribution on smell and the ideas of disgusting, nasty, tasty and gourmet. I have been working on this topic for a while now and I have a piece (in Spanish) on Letras Libres.

If you would like to learn more about the HSMSE Gastronomy class or on the teacher leading the initiative you can contact her check out their facebook page at: HSMSE Gastronomy Eats NYC or email her at jboylan @ hsmse.org She has prepared lesson plans and a syllabus, which she will be happy to share with other educators.

Mexican cheeses
I designed five different vegetarian sandwiches using Mexican cheeses for Aula Chocolate in Mexico City. These sandwiches are created around a traditional Mexican cheese and paired with local ingredients. Here are three that are already for sale:

Chiapas: Queso de Cuadro, berros, aceite de oliva, balsámico y miel.
Chihuahua: Queso Menonita, mostaza de grano y cebollas caramelizadas.
Michoacán: Queso Cotija, compota de sandía y menta fresca.

They are all made with bread baked on-site. The cheeses are produced by artisanal farmers and sourced by Lactography, and information on the makers is included with every sandwich. The purpose of this collaboration is to showcase traditional cheeses and ways to pair them with food and integrated them in a lacto-vegetarian diet. All profits from the sale of the cheese go directly to the makers and affineurs that produce them and age them.

For more information visit: Aula Chocolate or follow @aulachocolate

Cheesemonger certification

The American Cheese Society has been working for the past 10 years on creating a Certification Exam for Cheese Professionals and developing a Body of Knowledge document, which includes guidelines on all the cheese knowledge that someone to be certified should have. The purpose of such certification is to create professionals that are able to speak, promote and better cheese for everyone. I have been invited to be a Subject Matter Expert and hope to bring my expertise of Latin American cheese productions as well as experience as a Cheese Judge in North America to the effort. The first exam is scheduled to take place in early 2012 and you will be hearing more during the annual meeting of the ACS in August.

At this moment, I don’t envision traveling to Canada for the annual meeting, mostly because being a Mexican citizen I am requested by the Canadian government to obtain a visa to enter the country (this was not the case two years ago) and the price of application plus my situation as a full-time student makes the expense to apply for a visa, plus travel, plus enrolling in the conference prohibitive. If you would like to sponsor my participation or know someone that would, I will be forever grateful. I have budget the trip to cost US$1,000 dollars only on fees and travel expenses. I have friends in the Montreal to stay with.

For more information on the annual meeting and other events about the ACS you can follow them at @CheeseSociety

The other event that is taking place that may impact the certification process and which I have been doing some PR is the 2^nd Annual Cheesemonger Invitational, it will be hosted by Adam Moskowitz of Larkin on Friday, 8 July 2011, from 7 to 10 PM in Long Island City, New York. For more info visit Cheese Monger Invitational or follow him at @CMI_2011

Tea and Cheese

Harney and Sons will be hosting a small tasting in its newish SoHo store in New York City, we will be offering their tea-infused cheeses and other American cheeses paired with teas. I will be around to explain cheese tasting and pairings, while Emeric Harney will be explaining teaching people about tea. Cheese is a great gateway for this and should be a fun experience to have the cheesemaker there to explain us on the making of flavored cheeses.

Our tentative date is Thursday, 21 July 2011, from 5 to 8 PM, details to come. You can also find more information following @HarneySoHo and buy tea here.

Other (older) ongoing food collaborations:

Camel milk and cheese project – I am part of the Advisory Board of the What Took You So Long Foundation film project “Respect the Camel” for more info on the film being produced and many camel cheese related events follow them at @wtysl or at WTYSL Foundation.

Judging guidelines – We are looking to develop guidelines for cheese judges. This project is in conjunction with the Guild of Fine Food organizers of the World Cheese Awards and it will involve all the current Supreme International Judges. Follow them at @guildoffinefood and visit them at Fine Food World and for info on the 2011 Awards.

Denomination of Origin – I am continuously helping the Rancho San Josemaria, producers of one of the finest sheep’s milk cheeses in Queretaro, Mexico, to apply for a certificate of trademark in a first step on the long process to have this cheese awarded a DO. Follow them at @QuesosOvejaSJM or visit their site.

Finally, I call them collaborations because I have not been economically remunerated for any work under this scheme. I write this not to brag about my philanthropic spirit, but to differentiate these collectives from the work that I do commercially which includes classes, tastings, trainings, and consultancies. If you have an idea in mind that could impact the way we think about the food that we eat or how we consume it, email it to me and we can set up a collaborative. If you are interested in any of these projects and have an idea also email me or any of the people involved. All inquiries welcome to cheeseconsulting @ gmail.com

Festival del Queso - Ocosingo 2010

Festival del Queso
Date: 13 -14 August 2010
Place: Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico

I will be judging approximately thirty cheeses and will be giving a speech entitled: Los Quesos Mexicanos Genuinos: La necesidad de una legislacion quesera (Mexican Genuine Cheeses: the need for cheese legislation)

Follow me on twitter @carlosyescas, as I will be micro-blogging from there.

New York City

I moved to NYC four years ago. I was coming from living in Ireland, working for Sheridan's Cheesemongers in Galway, and studying a Master's of Laws. I already knew a lot about European cheese, but was not aware of the cheese revolution in the US.

Before I left the emerald island, my fellow cheesemongers in Ireland gave me two amazing presents. One was a cheesemaking class with Silke Cropp in county Cavan to make Corleggy and the second was a gift certificate for - what they said was one of the best cheese stores in the US - Murray's Cheese.

I arrived in the city and after settling in my new life, I checked out their website and got excited about all the classes that they had. Immediately, I called to introduce myself and the amazing Nora Singley asked me if I wanted to help out as an assistant in the classroom. Soon after I was assisting classes every week. A couple of months later, Zoe Brickley (former Cave manager) started looking for apprentices for the caves and me and Svetlana Kukharchuk-Redpath started interning three times a week.

It was there in the cold caves underneath Bleecker Street, with the guidance of Zoe, Nora, Pedro and Joaquin that I learnt about affinage, cutting perfect pieces, and tasting for perfect ripeness.

After that time, other great people at Murray's helped me learn more about cheese. Liz Thorpe, Taylor Cocalis, Louise Geller and Chris Munsey among many others. They all became part of my New York City experience.

But before this becomes a list of the people that you may not know. Let me tell you what is the purpose of this post. I write this as a public acknowledgement to the unsung heroes of the city. It is also a semi-goodbye to a city that has been good to me.

NYC is for better or worse one of the nodal points of the world. I call it this instead of a “world capital,” “the center of the universe,” or any other cliché term, because to me the city is exactly that - a big point of connection among many smaller places.

Those smaller (and bigger places) are the places where cheese is made, matured, and sold. The farmers, cheesemakers, and mongers are out there, caring for that cheese that will end up in our dinner table in 3-to-24 months.

The city is a big market place, where success stories are made and truly unique cheeses (and people) become the talk of the town. I can’t say that I love that about New York, but what I can say is that if you are willing to put the time to make it here, you have a good chance.

However, not everyone comes to the city in the same terms, not everyone gets to talk about cheese and enjoy it at dinner, some are the silent workers who clean the kitchens, mop the floors, and keep this town running day-in and day-out.

Most of those are immigrants and like me they came here looking for a dream. My dream was to work at United Nations, and continue to work with cheese. I never imagined that I would one day be a cheese judge or better a cheese academic, as my friend Dimitri Saad calls me. I came here to be with my family – my boyfriend – here I found new friends.

Immigrants, especially those from Mexico, come here looking for jobs that do not exist back home. They come here too, with their family and find new support systems. They have dreams of making it big and going back home to show the fruit of their work.

Still, the situation for all those migrants (particularly the undocumented) is getting harder and harder. They are now treated not only as second-class humans; they are also dispensed as targets for cheap political tactics.

There is no easy solution to the immigration problem of the US, and I don’t pretend to have the answer. What I do have is a very clear understanding that the only way this city and probably this country functions is because of all those immigrants that work hard and maintain our cheese-stores stocked, clean, and staffed.

As I leave the city for a while to continue researching to have a more complex understanding of a possible solution. I ask you to keep in mind those migrants, who like me would like to come and go easily and not live in fear of deportation for working in the things they love.

Other people that shouldn’t go unmentioned for making my NYC cheese life so fulfilling are Jen Boylan-Sessa, Michael Anderson, and Amy Thompson. There are many more people beyond this small list of New Yorkers, they are out there in the smaller places and I hope to see them all soon.

Cheese Solidarity

Since I started using Twitter, I have been following an awesome guy named the @CurdNerd. He is from New Zealand and is living in England and the person behind the #cheesesolidarity hash tag. His concept, as I understand it, is an easy one.

There are very few of us really committed to the idea of artisanal cheese and we should all support each other, but most importantly the small cheese makers. The problem is that because the profit margins are so small, some big players are getting territorial about their turf and markets. Unlike wine, cheese companies/retailers are not directly encouraging cheese connoisseurship. They have instead opted for the middleman model standing between cheese makers and cheese consumers. This is basically my whole problem with the international foodie circuit.

At the same time, some cheese experts are more worried about helping companies sell more cheese and less about helping cheese makers maintain their livelihoods, cultures and life styles. This late capitalist model prefers fancy over local, food as signifier of style rather than culinary cultures and it thrives from corporatization while obscuring craftsmanship.

It has been over a year now since I spoke about this in the 2009 Ontario Cheese Society annual meeting in Toronto, Canada. Back then I was pushing for a North American expertise of cheese. My remarks while welcomed were recieved with hesitation, especially from the big players.

Later in the year in my way to the Canary Islands for the WCA, I had the opportunity to talk to Jaime Montgomery from the now famous English cheddar. He like others and me in the event were worried about the direction that the cheese industry was going and wanted to change the emphasis to the craftmanship. I should point out that this is not just a conversation that existed with cheesers of the Anglo world; Spanish, French and Swiss judges expressed similar worries. Me as the only Latin American and the judge from South Africa were concerned that this marketization would destroy small local cheese farms in our counties. Giving way to a foodie market that rather consumes fancy food from factories bought at high-end markets than local productions from farmers and mongers.

Finally, after a brief conversation with Mateo Kehler, and other members of the American Cheese Society, I realized that the only thing I could do, was to directly link up with cheese makers to learn from them how we could ensure that their livelihoods were maintained for them, their families and their regions.

It is for this reason that I keep helping cheese makers in Chiapas pro bono and this summer I am planning to expand to help cheese makers in other regions of Mexico. I am also hoping to help start the Mexican Cheese Society.

In the mean time, I ask you to email me with suggestions and how to help cheese makers, opening markets, fighting lame legislation, finding funding and expertise, and connecting with cheesers all over the world.

In a sense keep the #cheesesolidarity going!!!

Culinary culture

If you follow me on twitter, you may know that I am fighting a very-familiar battle for cheesers out there. The battle is against big dairy corporations, their lobbyists and elected officials with no backbone. The fight is over pasteurization and this time the battleground is Mexico. However, the fight does not look much different in the rest of North America, Australia or New Zealand for that matter.

My battle is against a law proposed in the Federal Congress by the Ministry of Health that would outlaw cheesemaking using raw milk. The passage of the law would not only criminalize small artisanal producers, it will also constitute an assault to our culinary culture.

Yes, I know that both charges are really strong, but that is exactly what this proposed law (we'll call it NOM 243 by it's filling number) would do. Let me explain why and present the case for raw milk cheeses in an entirely Mexican context. If this sounds familiar to you, but you are not from Mexico or live there, it may be because a very similar situation exists in your country.

Let's start with a basic facts, Mexico did not have cheesemaking or any dairy industry before the colony. It was with the arrival of the Spanish and Italian monks that cheese made it's way to Mexico. This, however, does not mean that cheese is still foreign to Mexican cuisine. What it means is that cheese, like many other food ingredients in Mexican cooking, is a clear representation of a complex, varied, and vibrant culinary culture.

This culture inherits a strong indigenous sense with ingredients like corn, chilies, chocolate, cactuses, tomatoes, and vanilla. It borrows techniques from Spain like salting fish and meat and integrates milk (and it's by-products), bread and most meat into the cuisine. But the story does not end there. Mexican cuisines also learnt and incorporated French sauces, Italian meat curing, Chinese soups and broths, and we also use tahini and pickles from Mexicans whose backgrounds are Lebanese and Jewish. Increasingly our food is also influenced by new immigrants from Haiti, Argentina, Central America, Brazil, Korea and also from the US.

It is exactly within this diversity that Mexican cheese finds its place in our cuisines. Cheese in Mexico is not only a food product, for many is a way of life. Here I am talking of the small artisan producers who produce unique cheeses in all regions of the country. Think for a second of the Menonites of Chihuahua, the small communities (some indigenous peoples included) of Oaxaca and Chiapas who make Quesillo or Queso de Bola or Queso de Cuadro and of small ranchers in Michoacan who turn amazing raw milk into Cotija cheese. Those artisan cheesemakers learnt their craft from their grandparents who in turn learnt from their grandparents. Most of them use raw milk to make their cheeses. They have small herds that are taken care by the immediate family and worry a lot about the well-being of their cattle, their cheese and their customers.

If the proposed law passes, it would criminalize their way of living. Most of them would have to leave cheesemaking as they won't be able to afford pasteurizing machines and will rather sell milk for liquid consumption. Others would defy the law and continue making cheese with raw milk, but their productions will be pushed to the illegal market raising the real risk of having an outbreak of food-related illnesses from dairies that are not carefully inspected and regulated.

That situation already exist in Mexico, as there are laws in place for limiting the use of raw milk, but this law will completely outlaw this practice. Just to be sure, I am not advocating for no regulation. I am arguing that we don't need laws that prohibit completely traditional ways of cheesemaking and that instead we need strong mechanism for monitoring that the raw milk that is used for human consumption is clear and free of pathogens that can affect human health.

In a sense this proposed law is the option to solve a problem on the cheap. By outlawing all production of cheese with raw milk, the government only needs to enforce the law by sanctioning producers who go against the law. While establishing a monitoring system, guidelines, and trainings for dairy producers and cheesemakers, is expensive, labor intense and requires long term planning. Outlawing something from a comfy office in Mexico City is the easy way out.

The project that I am involved with in Chiapas to create a collective trademark for the Queso de Cuadro is the right solution. This project involves producers, farmers, government and academia in finding a way to maintain traditions while ensuring that cheesemaking is safe and clean. It is an initiative that has the backing of many stakeholders, making it a slow process, but at the same time it ensures that the ultimate decision would have the backing of all involved.

So what is it about raw milk? Why are so many of us fanatics of it and what does it have to do with Mexican culinary culture? Before I answer to these questions, let me tell you a short story about one of the cheese judging competitions that I hosted in Chiapas.

In my first trip to Chiapas, I tasted 45 samples of Queso de Cuadro. There were producers from the many regions of the state, and while most cheeses tasted similarly I was able to taste the terroir of the farms where these cheeses were produced. Those from the mountain region were dryer and fattier. The ones from the plains were more lactic (milky) with fresh smell of grass and those from the coast were sweet and aromatic (like tasting flowers). One cheese from the coastal region stood up in smell and flavor. It was sweeter than the others and the smell reminded of ripe fruit instead of flowers. After the competition, I asked the producer of this unique cheese about his herd, the location of his farm, the weather in the region and finally about the feed the cows eat. I was surprise to find out that while his dairy is similar to all other in the region the feed that he gave the cows included a stick of sugar cane in the middle of the day. He said that the cows loved the sugar and produced better milk. He said that he was worried that I was gonna ask him to stop feeding sugar canes to the cows. Instead I was for the first time realizing how much impact feed has on the final flavor of the cheese.

Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria and pathogens in milk, but it also destroys all the complexities in the milk from the various aspects present in the terroir. This means that flavors are more generic and it really doesn’t matter where cheese is made, as no trace of the location where is made is maintained. However, taste alone is not enough to argue that milk should not be pasteurized, especially if there are concerns about the quality of the milk.

Here is exactly, where the minutia of the argument becomes relevant. The solution is to ensure better milk, cleaner and safer techniques, and also to care and be responsible for milk producers’ livelihoods. This is impossible to achieve when the only reasoning behind producing milk is to turn a profit. Milk, while treated as a commodity in economic markets, it is also a food for human consumption. However a lot of people, companies and farmers forget this. They only see dollar/peso sings in the liters/gallons of milk produced and not a food with nutritional value, a story and benefit for our population. Food companies are not in the business of feeding people, they are in the business of making profits with products that we all need daily.

We need to move away form this economic model, which is ending traditional ways of production and hurting our environment. The solution is smaller farms, local consumption and care for the trade of farming. This is why I advocate for raw milk, to support our dairy farmers who are willing to produce good milk for us because they love what they do, not because they want to turn a profit at expense of the animals and the consumers.

If you are interested in learning more about the campaign in Mexico against NOM 243 follow me on twitter (@carlosyescas) and make sure to be ready to talk about raw milk to everyone that needs help understanding why this matters.

For resources in English visit the Alliance for Raw Milk Internationale, they have info about similar movements all around the world.

Cuttting the cheese

As you may have guessed by now, I am trying to be serious about cheese; this normally means reading, tasting, and immersing myself more and more in the world of cheese. Another way of being serious about it is by teaching classes and trying to expand my knowledge by hearing what other people have to say while teaching. This is why I keep taking classes at Murray's Cheese and at any other places that offer new topics. NYC is great for that as so many of the cheese stores have an educational program.

However, this time I am doing something different. I will be teaching a condensed version of my Cheese Politics class at the New School. My friend Maya is teaching Food Politics here and invited me to talk about Cheese as a food full of politics.
As a good Academic, I consider this opportunity unique. Not only because it is at my graduate institution, but because the topics that I hope to explore are different. The first difference with my other classes is that this one won't have a tasting component. That is really difficult when talking about a food that it is so much about the smell, the texture, and the flavor. However, what I hope to do is to talk about cheese as a political process, not just the making and aging of it, but also all the decisions that are taken in its commercialization, consumption, popularization, and fame.

I hope to learn as much as I hope to teach this group of students. I will have a full report on it, as I think it will be a great tool to understand how people see cheese not just as a food to enjoy, but also a food with a cultural/political baggage.

On a different topic: The knives and cheese cutting utensils are mine. I was cleaning them over the weekend and took a picture of them for the blog, but didn’t know how to use it. Here they are for your reference. I know the names of some of them, but not all. If you recognize them post their names in the comments.

Travel Cheese

I was talking to Murray's cave master, Michael Anderson about the hoopla about the breast milk cheese that keep foodies in NYC busy last week. After explaining to my friend Maya why you cannot actually make cheese out of this milk, and that this cheese must have had another milk added (cow's in this case), we then talked about all the people getting really serious about cheesemaking and cheese-expertise. That is really exciting as the cheese world needs more advocates.

This I hope translates in better cheese being demanded in more places. In my most recent trip, I noticed that JFK airport does not have a gourmet food store and instead everything sold in the duty free shops are imported brands of liquor, chocolate, cigarrettes, and fragances. This is also the case in other big airports in the US and Mexico. But not in Canada or Europe. Shanghai airport in China also has only international brands in it's shops.

Toronto, Reikjavik, London, Madrid, Dublin, Milan and Amsterdam (some of the most recent airports that I been in the past 4 years) have stores featuring local foods, brands, and gifts. Including cheese and other foods. I am not sure what is the reason behind this, but what I think is that the lack of local foods maybe be a signal of the declining pride that there is on national cuisines and products in these countries.

If anyone has a better explanation, let me know. For now I leave you with this reflection, which I hope leaves you thinking but without cheese - just like I got to my destination after being in JFK and Mexico City airport.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.

Cheese of the Week: Rogue River Blue

For this week, I wanted to choose something that could be served for Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps a blue cheese is not the best option after a meal of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pies. But I have chosen this chesse for its politics and story.

Rogue River Blue is made in Portland, Oregon - out of raw cows milk. After the cheese is pierced, it is covered with grape leaves that have been macerated with Brandy. The flavour is salty, creamy and boozy (this may help you when coming out to your family during dinner.)

The cheese is the first American raw milk cheese allowed to be exported to Europe. The cheesemakers behind it are strong advocates of raw milk and have designed a cave that mimics those in Roquefort. However the wrapping in grape leaves resambles more a Spanish cheese than a French one.

The great thing about American cheeses is the possibility to combine various cheesemaking techniques and come up with great new cheeses. The proccess of innovation in Europe has stopped and for the most part new cheeses there are only commercial inventions responding more to market forces than innovation.

Some cheesemakers blame this on the strict DO rules, while others attribute it to a saturation of the market. In North America there is more space to innovate because we still have huge markets to enter. Still, cheesemakers in Canada, the USA and Mexico are not just looking for market niches, they are trying to figure out the terroir of their regions and develop cheeses that will appeal to consumers in the same region.

For this reason a lot of the great new American cheeses can only be found in local farmer's markets and access is limited to where the cheesemakers can get without compromising their product.

The conjuction of old techniques, new terroirs and opportunities to young cheesemakers is the driving force behind the growth in artisanal cheesemakers in North America. For this reason, I think we should support them and help them find their own place in the cheese world.

Enjoy and happy thanksgiving.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.

Salt, futures and health

Salt is the hidden and often times forgotten third ingredient in cheese. Salt is used to heighten the complexities of the milk. Tasting over 50 cheeses this week, I have developed a taste for the salt used.

My biggest issue with salt is with the commercial industrially produced salt that has iodine. I find that type of salt can give sometimes a metallic taste to cheeses that have high ph levels.

The end result is normally a cheese that has good flavour, but the finish is unpleasant as the mouth overwaters to dissolve some of the excess salt.

When asked the producers about their choice of salt, most if them told me that is an economic decision. They choose the cheapest salt in the market the day that they need it. That price is normally set by the demand and supply forces around cheese and the futures market may also have to do something with the fluctuations in price. In Chiapas this is particularly problematic as all the salt is brought from far away regions and the final price includes the cost of transportation to this very remote and difficult access area of Mexico.

Salt with iodine is promoted in Mexico by the health inspectors, but so far I have gotten no clear answer of the benefits of iodine in salt. I guess I should go back to Mark Kurlaski's book Salt and try to learn more about this mystery ingredient.

Why is Oka the only Canadian cheese you can find in New York?

Canadian cheese doesn’t carry the same connotations as American Cheese – all Kraft Singles and curds in a can – so why don’t we see more of it around the world… As usual my response is: Cheese Politics!

“Quebec cheese is a hundred years ahead of us,” Cole Snell told me when talking about all the Quebecois cheeses offered at his store in Toronto. As proven recently in the 2009 World Cheese Awards, where a Canuck cheese took the top prize, Quebecois cheese is ready for the world stage. Still it is impossible to get the winning Le Cendrillon in the US or even cheeses that are more familiar in Canada like Le Baluchon or its mature cousin Reserve La Perade, or Fellowship or Grey Owl, or even the cryopacked-but-amazing Cows Cheddar.

Quebecois politics may have something to do with why good Canadian cheese can’t be sold to foreign markets. Also, there is the Canadian federal system that protects small local producers, but creates huge obstacles for small dairies to obtain federal permits to sell across provinces. This risks only helping big agri-business and food conglomerates with the resources to lobby parliament.

The transfer of knowledge from Quebecois cheesemakers to other farmers in the rest of Canada has been slow. A persistent perception that English-speaking Canadians only eat cheddar has hindered joint ventures that would train cheesemakers in British Columbia, Ontario or PEI. So most of the cheeses produced in the English-speaking provinces have developed by people who have gone “back to the farm,” much like in the US.

The US still limits imports of Canadian cheddar to protect American producers (mainly conglomerates producing block commercial cheddar). Many of the regulations in place are left-over from policies adopted by the government of the thirteen American colonies against the royalist Canadians who sided with England during the war for independence. Other regulations involve the inconsistent 60-day rule applying to raw milk cheeses, that bans the entrance of much amazing unpasteurized cheese from Canada.

If this weren’t enough, the Canadian government has been slow at supporting its own producers (artisanal, but also some farmstead) to get them off the ground and move into export. I know we are not meant to have some food products outside of our regions, following slow food principles, but when you think about it, Toronto is closer to New York, Quebec closer to Boston and Vancouver closer to Seattle, than many points within the States. “Think local, think Canadian” was my motto when I was beginning to develop a market for Canadian cheeses in New York.

While that project is on hold, now I just hope someone starts bringing these amazing cheeses from north of the border. Intermittently, Canadian cheeses can be found at Artisanal in New York. Their affineur Denis Cottin is from Quebec and manages to bring some interesting wheels. But if you have the chance to travel north, make sure to try one of the amazing Canadian cheeses made with raw milk.

BTW – if you are into the slow movement, Mr. Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered will be giving a talk at Murray’s cheese on Friday at 6:30 PM. For info contact: Taylor Cocalis at taylor@murrayscheese.com