News and blog
Until the next time,
B
What?” you ask is an Affineur’s Limited Edition anyway. Well at times the ones running the aging rooms want something different. Thus we are offering limited edition cheeses. These are one of a kind, never to be replicated again cheeses and once they're gone, they're gone. Also these cheeses will be sold by the whole dollar amount, no need for change. Not only will we be offering these cheeses at the markets that we attend but you can also purchase them online.
We are starting off the Affineur’s Limited Editions with a double hit - cows milk cheese and goats milk cheese.
The cows milk cheese is an aged cheese. It has a smooth mouth feel with a fruity tang that finishes with Brazil nuts.
The goat milk cheese, Oakwood, is a full bodied, perfect cooking cheese for the goat lover; especially suited for Italian style dishes.
Order the cheese, scroll through the page and look for the Affineur's Limited Edition Cheese options.
Sorry, none of the Affineur’s Limited Editions are available for wholesale
I took some time today to update the website and realized that it was last August that I last wrote on the blog. Hmm arn't blogs to be updated more frequently? Weeellllll..... We'll leave that one to be debated. But if you are missing the interaction like us on Facebook and get updates there. So what has happened between then and now. Wow lots. We are in the final stages of a remodel to the creamery, we now have the first cheese shops west of the Mississippi carrying the cheese and we have won our first major award for the cheese. Phew and I'm still somewhat sane.
First the remodel. As we have continued to grow and with the ever present presence of FDA into all food producers lives we decided to remodel the plant to make the process more efficent and hopefully meet expectations. We're trying to proactive not reactive here. We covered in the walk behind the creamery and attached that to the covered walk infront of the aging rooms. This room will become the utility room, where the boiler will live. Hopefully this will help keep some of the heat out of the creamery and also will free up the current utility room to be turned into a packing room and allow for more lab/paper work area. We are down to moving the boiler at the current moment. This entails cutting a hole into the wall of the creamery to move the boiler. The hole will then be filled in as a doublehinged door. After that is done then it's moving some tables around, putting some washboard on the wall and cleaning up everything, walls, ceiling, equipment, etc. All this had to be done before the beginning of March. Things are progressing right on schedule and we should be ready to go when the calves hit the ground sometime around the middle of March.
Now for the big news! Canal Junction Cheese has recieved a 2012 Good Food Award for their Charloe cheese. We here are very humbled by this. I took the oppurtuinty to go out to San Francisco to recieve the award. While out there I got the grand tour of Cowgirl Creamery thanks to a wonderful Debra Dickerson, whom I met almost 3 years ago at the American Cheese Society annual conference when it was in Seattle. I took a day extra from the award ceremony and market place to see the area. I spent a day out at Point Reyes and surrounding areas. Then on Firday evening the Good Food Award ceremony took place and afterwards there was a winners tasting. On Saturday all the winners were offered the chance to participate in the marketplace. It was 8 hours of nonstop sampling, talking, and selling cheese, and that was just one kind of cheese! That evening I was invited to the Cowgirls Creamerys annual pre Fancy Food Show cheesemakers, mongers, lovers party. During which I had the oppurtunity to meet great cheesemakers, mongers, and general all around great people. From that weekend Canal Junction cheese is now available in 3 new locations, all of which are west of the Mississippi.
Well I better keep moving. I need to get ready for a talk tomorrow with Edible Columbus and then for The Hills Markets, Ohio's Sweet Hearts tasting.
Hope to see you around,
Brian
So if I could go back in time, ask an old Indian, "what is the winter going to be like for us?" I would like to know. I've yet to live enough to see what will happen. The last time we had heat like this past summer I was in grade school and could have cared less. But the weather patterns seem fast this year. Today it is nice, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, slightly muggy but not so much. It reminds me of a September day, not one in the middle of August. I've turned the AC off in my room and have the windows open again. This morning I woke up because I was cold, something I rarely do in August.
This weather pattern this year created additional challenges for us here on the farm. First with a wet spring, things were looking good for us with the grass but when the weather turned from spring to summer in a matter of hours the grass matured too quickly and stopped growing. Add on a lack of adequate rain fall and we're almost out of grass. Cows do not produce milk on mature grass like they do on spring grass. It's like sustaining yourself on bread with butter vrs, bread. The more mature the grass the less the cows produce. In a normal year we have plenty of milk in May, June, and the beginning of July. Once the heat hits in July the production starts to decrease. This year it started at the beginning of June which has hurt inventory. We are going to be short on some of the cheeses in the fall of this year. We have gotten rain the past few days and the clover is responding to the cooler weather by growing again which has made the cows come up in production but not enough. We will continue to have our basic cheeses but we are starting to eliminate a few of the varieties. One of the many experiences from Ireland I learned, was that fewer products you make, the better you are at them.
Thankful for every drop of rain we have got,
B
An evening of cheese sensory evaluation in Celebration of Dairy Month
What: Learn the basics of cheese sensory evaluation
Where: Local Roots (Wooster) - Friday June, 24 starting at 6:30
Who: Brian Schlatter from Canal Junction Farmstead Cheese and Abbe Turner from Lucky Penny Creamery
Ever wonder how they evaluate cheese? Come and learn/taste how. This one hour session will walk you through the basic sensory system, how it works together, see how good of a nose you have, train your palate and then taste, evaluate, enjoy atleast 6 different cheeses, if not more, bring your own to share if you wish.
Cost – $7.00 per person
Contact Jessica at Local Roots to reserve your spot today. 330-263-5336
I realized the other day that I have a rather sporadic blog posting “schedule” and thought that I had better get another post out and try and keep up with a much more regular schedule. Most of the posting that I have done in the past have been inclined more toward the business end of things and thinking that some of you might just want to know more about me, as a person, not just a cheesemaker.
This weekend as I was traveling with the family home from Iowa where we spent a very short and fast weekend with family out there. It dawned on me, trees, that what makes there area different than here. Sure the land rolls much more than here but the one thing that sticks out is the trees. I have traveled around a fair bit because of the cheese. Mostly for educational needs and it has exposed me to a lot of different terrains. It’s no surprise that I enjoyed myself in Ireland immensely and learned more than I thought I would. When asked if I could live over there I have to reply that it would take time to get used to the way their trees are. They are not like home here in Northwest Ohio. The same goes for out in Iowa where we were. The trees don’t grow in forest areas like here, nor do they grow straight and tall because of the competition from other trees. I’ve been to the Northeast many times and out to the Pacific Northwest once and both of those places were areas that had nice trees that complimented the ones here. It never dawned on me before what a profound impact that something as trivial as trees can have on a person.
So the next time you go out, observe the area around you, at a slow pace. If you go to fast you will miss something. Something like the difference in the trees from area to area.
On the cheese front things are looking good. This week will be the first week that cheeses from this year will be released.
From the lab room,
Brian
When it rains, it pours. Right? Well it seems that way at times and this month is no exception. Beside the cheesemaking class that we are hosting here at the farm there is another opportunity for those who are interested to learn more about the fine art of cheesemaking.
Ohio’s cheese makers will have an opportunity to learn from one of the masters on April 14 when French Cheese Specialist, Patrick Anglade, visits Ohio. Those participating in this informative class will have an opportunity to ask questions and share samples of their products. This class will be intimate, casual and conversational. Here is your opportunity to speak one on one in the USA with a master consultant from France- very exciting stuff for Ohio cheesemakers and cheesemongers. Sponsored by the Ohio Sheep Milk and Cheese Initiatve and Innovative Farmers of Ohio.
Location: Fulton Creek Jersey Cheese, 9518 Welsh Rd., Richwood, Ohio, 43344
Phone: 937-348-2633 call Sylvia Zimmerman to reserve your place. Class size will be limited to guarantee that all participants receive appropriate attention.
Registration: $145.
Class: 10:00—4:00 Thursday, April 14, 2011
Back to the caves to finish putting the shelving in the new one.
BFor all those that are interested in the cheese class here at Canal Junction, there is info up on the website. You can find it here, http://www.canaljunctioncheese.com/files
Let me know if you can not access the file, this is the first time doing something like this.
Brian