This holiday season, give the gift of cheese!

Every holiday season when the fever of shopping is in the air, I always think about how I can direct my personal contribution towards things that promote sustainability. These days, who really needs more stuff? For years I've opted to purchase or make gifts that produce little waste, don't clutter others' homes, and carry a small carbon footprint. Needless to say, I've built a reputation among my friends and family for giving gifts of food. This holiday season, do something that feels good on so many levels, and give the gift of cheese! You'll support a local small business, which in turn supports an entire network of other local small businesses through the independent cheesemakers and local distribution companies I work with, and impress the hell out of people with awesome cheese!

In addition to our usual range of great gift ideas like gift certificates and specialty cheese platters, you can also get your orders in now for hand-selected Holiday Cheese Assortments.



* Pacific Northwest Selections (pictured above): Tumalo Farms "Jewell" (OR), Sally Jackson Goat (WA), Black Sheep Creamery's "Queso de Oveja" (WA), and Rogue Creamery's "Oregonzola" (OR). $35

* European Classics: Delice du Jura (Burgundy, France), Abbaye de Belloc (French Pyrenees), Keen's Cheddar (Neal's Yard Dairy, UK), Valdeon Cabrales (Spanish blue) $35

or go for the gusto with
* Around the world with cheese: 7 exquisite selections of the best cheeses available from the U.S. and beyond $70

Each assortment includes labels for identification and a cheese menu detailing origin, type, and production of each cheese. All assortments are available on a pre-order, pre-paid basis and available for pickup from 12/20 - 12/24.

And as always, we will be fully stocked and staffed to give you the great the individual service you know and love. See you on the other side of the deli case!

Breaking the Cheddar!

December 11th-12th we're stoked to be participating in the annual Pike & Pine Holiday Shopping Weekend! This is a great opportunity to cruise the neighborhood for dozens of great deals from all your favorite locally owned businesses.

For this event, we'll be breaking a wheel of Montogmery's Cheddar from Neal's Yard Dairy. This mighty British cheddar was one of the first I ever tasted from the Neal's Yard collection over ten years ago, and it is still one of my all-time favorite cheeses - rich, buttery, salty and tangy. Muscling into a wheel of Monty's is just as much a treat for me as it is for everyone else.


That's a wheel of Keen's in the photo, a close cousin to Monty's

We'll break the cheddar at high noon on Saturday December 11th, so swing by for some tasty samples and enjoy 10% off Monty's for the rest of the weekend. See you then!

Book Signing!

This weekend I am super plussed to welcome cheese maven Sasha Davies to the shop for an afternoon book signing featuring her amazing catalog of cheese in our area and beyond:



Sasha will be at the shop signing copies of her book from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. this Saturday, November 13th, 2010.
This is an excellent opportunity to pick up some early bird gifts for your cheese loving friends! Stop by to chat cheese with her, check out her lovely book, and sample some amazing cheeses from the west coast.

Vive la fromage!

Cheese and "the Man"

Last week U.S. Fire Marshalls issued a seizure of all cheeses made by local cheesemakers Estrella Family Creamery in Montesano, WA. This final act of shutting down the creamery is the culmination of many months of back-and-forth between the Estrella's and the FDA concerning positive strains of Listeria in some of their raw milk cheeses.

I've been thinking a lot about this issue and exactly how I want to approach it and what I feel is purposeful for me to say as a retailer. Rather than repeat what has already been covered by many other sites, I will refer you to a summary of events by Tami Parr of Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, which also links to the official Report by the FDA and an article in the Seattle Times.

This event has the potential to put the Estrella's out of the cheesemaking business for good, and personally I think that would be a tragedy. They have been making amazing farmstead cheese for many years, and they have built a reputation among the greater Seattle area and beyond for producing stellar products. They are good people who have no intention of harming the supportful community that buys their cheese. I love their cheese, and I really hope that I will have the opportunity to sell it again the near future.

That being said, I keep thinking about Listeria, it seems to be all anyone can blather about in the case of the Estrella's. While I think there is a bigger issue to be addressed, I do want to clarify just a few details about it. Listeria monocytogenes, the bacteria known to cause infections of Listeria, is a pathogen that naturally occurs in the environment, most commonly in soil, stream water, and plants. Because it is found in these things, it is often passed through people and animals into sewage and food -- not to be confused with the Seattle Times single claim that it is found in fecal matter, insinuating that only unsanitary and careless cheesemakers would transfer it from animal to product. While Listeria monocytogenes can be harmful to the young, elderly, immunocompromised, and pregnant women, most healthy adults can ingest the bacteria in food etc. and never experience any symptoms of a Listeria infection.

What I find most compelling and exasperating is not the issue of Listeria pahtogens being found in the Estrella's cheese, or any cheese for that matter, but the way that this potential hazard is dealt with by our current federal regulations. I view eating most cheeses, raw milk or not, along the same level of risk that may be associated with eating cured meat, undercooked beef, raw egg in a salad dressing, etc. It is a calculated risk that I personally take because I love the food. I may get sick or not, but what is important to me is that the people serving me these "risky" products educate and inform me of any potential illness that may result from eating them. I realize that an evening spent in the bathroom does not compare to potential birth defects and other long term issues that can arise from Listeria infection, however I still stand by my belief that we should be allowed to make the choice ourselves.

I typically have between 15 and 20 raw milk cheeses available at any given time, and many customers who want to buy exclusively raw milk cheese. I also have plenty of customers who want to stay the hell away from raw milk cheese, and then those who aren't sure about it so I tell them the facts and lay out the most conservative route they may take in cheese buying, but ultimately, it's up to them, and that's the way it should be.

ACS 2010: a recap of sorts

As many of you know, last week Seattle was invaded by over 1,000 cheese freaks for the annual American Cheese Society conference, loving dubbed Cheese-a-topia. It was a whirlwind, to say the least, and I'll do my best to give a thorough recap of events.

The first thing I realized is that while it's an amazing thing to have the conference in my town, it means a lot of extra work as I bustled between sessions and keeping an eye on the shop. It was really an opportunity that I don't know I'll ever have again in that cheese professionals from far and wide were just blocks from my new baby. I was so happy every time someone walked in ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the space, and I got many compliments from people I've looked up to for years. My ego was stroked as much as a puppy in a park on a sunny day.

The conference: I only got to attend about half of the sessions I signed up for due to demands of the shop, which I expected, but here's a rundown of those I did make it to.

Health Benefits and the Psychology of Cheese
I was really jazzed for this session, however it was a tad disappointing. I expected to walk away with a pocketful of information to relay to customers about the virtues of good cheese in our diets. However the speakers, while all knowledgeable and fun to listen to, generally couldn't come up with much conclusive evidence via studies et. al. as to the benefits of dairy. There was some very interesting talk about changing the overall view of diet and nutrition in the U.S. from outdated perceptions of food as "bad" or "good", to a more cohesive and comprehensive view of all food we eat as a continuum. Myself often being the one to justify copious amounts of cheese by filling my gob with salad and fresh veg, this hit a note for me, but otherwise, I didn't walk away with much.

Last Stop: Cheese Shop
This session was focused on the details of retailing cheese, from deciding what to order and why, to caring for it in the shop, displaying it in the case, pricing, and of course, mongering it to customers. This was the highlight of the conference for me because we got to get down and dirty with some amazing cheesemongers from across the country. We basically dissected the deli cases that were on display from the previous day's merchandising competition, where teams of two were each given one deli case, a box of cheese, and their own tools and ingenuity to create an impressive display. I took away many details that I will incorporate into my deli cases, and the panel was a great little hotbed of lively discussion for all.

Getting Inside the Mind of the Retail Buyer
I misunderstood the brief description of this session (as many others did), in that I thought they would be speaking about getting inside the minds of my customers. Turns out it was more about getting inside my head, and those of other buyers, distributors, etc. This was a surprisingly interesting session as most of the attendees were cheese makers, and we got to hear them ask the panel about the issues they face. I am still a bit shocked at the lack of open discourse we have with cheese makers, and I was biting my tongue to bark out my own voice whenever a cheese maker asked how they should contact us, what's the best way to get their cheese to us, etc. I think what was great to me about this session was not so much what happened in the 90 minutes we sat there, but the internal 'oopmh' I got to keep up communication with my beloved cheese purveyors. They work so hard to make these amazing products for us, and the connection between us (retailers) and them should never be lost, but rather strengthened by consistent contact.

There is more, much more, but this is enough for one post. Photos uploading as we speak...

Welcome to Cheese-a-topia!

It's been a little while since posting, because the shop is hopping! Business has seriously increased over the past couple of months now that all of us in the market are open, and I often find myself buying so much cheese for the weekend that I'm afraid I've made a horrible mistake, only to find that come Monday, the deli case is back to only 75% capacity. It's an amazing feeling, and it's keeping me busier than many bees.

I am taking some time away this week for Cheese-a-topia! This year's annual American Cheese Society conference is being held in Seattle, and I could not be happier. I got to experience this 3 day immersion in all things cheese geeky last year down in Austin, Texas. The conference is such an amazing opportunity to meet people in the industry from all around the world, learn more than a reasonable brain can handle, and eat far too much cheese than anyone should ever eat in 72 hours.

While the conference doesn't begin until Thursday, we are kicking it off tonight at the shop with a reading and book signing with Gordon"zola" Edgar, author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge. He's always super fun and I'm looking forward to hanging out with many of the awesome cheese peeps I met at last year's conference. Tomorrow will see myself and pal Sarah of Mission Cheese on a full day tour of cheesemakers in the area, followed by dinner on the farm at Kurtwood Farms. Thursday the conference officially begins, and I promise rich coverage of every cheesey moment.

Wha, little 'ole me??

Just as the shop is celebrating 3 months in business, I am completely amazed and dumbfounded by the amount of awesome (and free!) press that's circulating about Calf & Kid and the rest of the Melrose Market.

Recently we've had dozens of highlights among local food bloggers, local rag blogs, etc. Last week the whole market got a nice little writeup in the Thursday edition, then lo and behold, the Sunday Times featured a lovely bit about yours truly! The online piece doesn't feature a kickass photo of myself with a hearty wedge of Woman of La Mancha from the esteemed Gothberg Farms. Also hailed in the article (among others), was Black sheep Creamery's Queso de Oveja. I am beyond plussed at how many people have come into the shop after reading the article demanding Black Sheep's cheese! As some of you may know, I spent a short stint at their farm/creamery last summer in the spirit of learning the in's and out's of cheesemaking first-hand, so their cheeses have a very special place in my heart.

This little piece of press has brought people into the shop from all over, clamoring for the cheeses I mentioned, and I couldn't be happier! It's one thing to embrace the popularity of my shop, but it is quite another to have people come in asking for the local cheeses that I so dearly love. I know that the cheesemakers are feeling the trickle-down effect of this with my weekly orders for more, more, more cheese!
Major kudos to you, Seattle and beyond, for jumping on this bandwagon de fromage.