Tag Archives: Slow Food

Cheese of the Week: Sartori SarVecchio Wisconsin Parmesan

Posted on July 12, 2009 | 2 comments

This is a fantastic Parmesan-style cheese, perhaps all the more because it’s made in Wisconsin, rather than Italy.

According to the Huffington Post, it was recently named Best Cheese in the U.S. in the 2009 Championship Cheese Contest. It’s easy to see why. The SarVeccio grates beautifully and has a wonderful, distinctive Parmesan taste that is great plain and can also hold its own in many dishes. The taste is at once sweet, salty and nutty, and the cheese has a nice crystally crunch.

Sartori is now in its third generation of cheese producers. The company patriarch, Paul Sartori, hailed from Valdastico, Italy, not far from the cheese-town of (and producers of the parmesan-like) Asiago. It was his dream to bring Italian cheesemaking methods and tastes to America. Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Larry Steckbauer has been at the helm of the company’s Parmesan operation for some time.

A lot of processes are carefully cultivated and unique to SarVecchio. The cheese is washed with olive oil and aged a long 20 months. The milk is from local cows.

In addition to being the perfect grating cheese for pastas, salads and soups, SarVecchio also makes a nice dessert or munching cheese, and works with dried fruit, flavorful wine, or sherry. As a bonus, it is fairly reasonably priced, when compared to other Parmesans or grating cheeses.

We recently grated some SarVecchio over a dish of lemon-ricotta ravioli, with olive oil, super-thin zucchini slices, and soybeans. Yum!

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Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Cheese of the Week: Hirtenkase

Posted on June 28, 2009 | 2 comments

hirtenkaase

This is a nice gouda-type cheese in the same family as one of our regular purchases, Sankaenter. In fact, Hirtenkase could be Sankaenter’s older, more serious brother. The cheese is a hard worker — it’s hard in texture, in fact and a bit dry. It’s dotted with protein crystals, which lend the texture some crunch. A bit of oil pleasantly coats the mouth, before a caramel undertone, and even a hint of flowers, catches up to the sharp, salty crunch.

So why do I find this cheese serious? A solid cheese, it gets the job done, without fooling around, without frivolity. The flavor is relatively strong and especially consistent. It doesn’t veer off into surprising places. Hirtenkase is more Journeyman than Drama Queen.

Hirtenkase literally means “herdsman’s cheese”. After bringing their cows into the Alps each spring to graze, Southern German cow herders traditionally bring them back down each fall — In the case of Hirtenkase, they come back to the Allgau area, near the Austrian border. Wonderfully, the cows’ mid-September descent down the mountains is marked with a festival for which the cows are adorned with flowers, and people along their route gather and cheer.

Aged eight months, Hirtenkase’s hard texture and good flavor make it a nice grating, as well as snacking, cheese. Its slight salty taste could take a fruity wine to compliment it. The strong taste and caramel-ly aspect work well with ale and good pretzels.

Come mid-September, I’ll be eager to celebrate.

Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Local, Sustainable Tastes of the Sonoma-Marin Fair

Posted on June 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

Sonoma and Marin Counties enjoy such a rich agricultural bounty that it should come as no surprise that the Sonoma-Marin Fair provides a wonderful opportunity to sample some of the best and newest local, sustainable food. This year, the Farm-to-Table exhibit had been expanded. The first item we tried was the fantastic McEvoy Ranch Olive Oil. You could really taste the fresh grass in it.

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McClelland’s Dairy (where we used to take our daughter to watch the cows being milked) is now making their own organic, artisan, small-batch butter, which we happily sampled and found extremely tasty.

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We had terrific honey from Hector’s Honey, which is available at the Santa Rosa, CA, and other local farmer’s markets in eucalyptus, vetch, wildflower, and other flavors from local flowers.

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We spoke with Karen Bianchi-Morada, 8th generation cheesemaker (Italy, Switzerland, and now five generations in West Marin). Her Valley Ford Cheese Estero Gold was extremely tasty. Aged 120 days, it’s an asiago-type cheese that’s buttery, distinctly flavored, and affordably priced. It’s available in Whole Foods and other local markets.

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Next up was something new called Sonomic Vinegar, from Wine Country Vinegars. It’s a rich balsamic-like vinegar that had more depth and flavor than a typical balsamic and, yet, was still made from 100% grapes. The producer also runs Sonoma Valley Portworks. I assured him a visit would be forthcoming.

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Of course, no fair would be complete without the requisite corn dogs, funnel cakes, garlic-fry bricks, deep-fried twinkies (!), watery margaritas, barbecued chicken, chow mein, kettle corn, and lemonade. And, sure enough, we left the sustainable exhibit and sampled some of that stuff, too.

Follow our other fair adventures here.

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Posted in Butter and Egg, Field Trip, Slow News, Sustainability, To Market, Who Moved My Cheese?

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Cheese of the Week: Juniper Grove Tumalo Tomme Goat Cheese

Posted on June 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

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The world’s longest lasting cheese course (lucky us!) continues with a Tumelo Tomme Goat’s Milk cheese (also known as Tumelo Classico) from Juniper Grove Farm in Redmond, Oregon. This is a lovely cheese, with a firmer texture than you might ordinarily find in a goat cheese, which results in something like a goat gouda. It’s a solid, pleasing cheese, with a lot of body in the mouth.

The goat aspect takes a moment to hit you and, when it does, it is equally pleasant and on the mild side. (The Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano, which was on the same plate, is bolder.) There are nutty and sweet, even caramel-like notes, along with an earthy, slightly mushroom-y taste.

Redmond Grove Farm’s owner/cheesemaker, Pierre Kolisch, studied cheesemaking in Normandy with master cheesemaker Francois Durand, and cites European “tomme” cheeses as an influence. (“Tomme” loosely means small cheese from partial milkings, with the “tomme” and “toma” names in particular use in the French and Italian Alps.)

Tumalo is a raw-milk cheese, made from milk from Redmond Grove’s herd of goats, which feed on alfalfa year-round on beautiful land east of Oregon’s Cascade Mountain range. (Indeed, Tumalo bears the name of a local village.) Kolisch employs traditional farmstead methods in his cheesemaking, such as separating curds from whey, and then brining, stacking and hand-turning the washed-rind cheese, as it ages on pine planks in a dry, cool environment for three months.

The result is this nice, lovingly made goat cheese.

The Tomalo Tomme works well with crackers, grapes, apricots, or a fruity red wine, such as Pinot Noir or Merlot.

Girlfigcheesecourse

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Congratulations: Edible Marin & Wine Country Magazine Launches

Posted on June 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

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The premiere issue of Edible Marin & Wine Country magazine is out, and it’s gorgeous. It’s filled with stunning photos and wonderful information about Marin, Sonoma, and Napa food and the growers and artisans who create it. There are plenty of recipes and ideas for home cooks and gardeners, as well as inspiration and information about where to find the best local, sustainably grown food and information about the Slow Food movement in general.

Publisher Gibson Thomas has been spearheading the Marin-Sonoma chapter of Slow Food since 2002, and her passion for our local bounty of incredible food and its producers is palpable.

After reading about Mill Valley’s Cici Gelateria, in the issue’s sweet rundown of ice cream and gelato shops that use local, sustainable ingredients, my family popped in for a selection. There’s only a hint of a relationship between Cici’s gelato and traditional ice cream. The gelato’s fresh flavors come through quite strongly and deliciously, without relying on an overuse of sugar or fat. We sampled a rich, hazelnut pistachio; a very minty mint chocolate chip; and a salted chocolate that offered a complex mix of tastes not often found in frozen desserts. (I’ve also had the pleasure of enjoying a couple of Cici’s more novel flavors, which are periodically available, such as a delicious lavender vanilla, and a refreshing, wonderful cardamom.)

The magazine also made me want to forage for edible greens along my local roadsides, get to Napa’s Oxbow Market, and create wonderful dishes with heirloom tomatoes. Best, it truly made me appreciate my local community of food growers, purveyors and enthusiasts.

Edible Marin & Wine Country is available by subscription and is distributed free at Whole Foods and other markets. Not in Marin/Napa/Sonoma? Fear not. There are Edible publications covering communities from San Diego to Cape Cod, with plenty of stops in between.

Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Cheese of the Week: Fiscalini Farms Bandage Wrapped Cheddar

Posted on June 15, 2009 | 2 comments

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Moving further along our superb Girl and the Fig cheese course, in order of distinctiveness (to me), we find the Fiscalini Farms Bandage Wrapped Cheddar. This was my husband’s very favorite cheese on the plate.

It is, indeed, a special cheese. It has a wonderfully strong, complex taste that features a mix of salty and sweet flavors. There are hints of grass and nuts, along with a pleasing buttery quality.

Far from the gummy, uninteresting, mass-produced cheddars that can give this cheese a bad name, the Fiscalini is dry and on the crumbly side, without sacrificing any creaminess of texture. It’s aged 18 months, using unpasteurized milk from the Fiscalini Farmstead cows and traditional methods that include bandage-wrapping the wheels in cheesecloth. The cheesecloth lets the cheese breathe as it ages and lends it a nice porous rind.

The Fiscalini Cheese Company, in the California Central Valley town of Modesto, has been operating since 1914. Their current cheesemaker, Jorge “Mariano” Gonzalez, studied at Montgomery Farms in England and perfected his methods at Shelburne Farms in Vermont. His bandage-wrapped cheddars consistently win awards, competing with such cheddar stalwarts as Neal’s Yard Dairy in England.

Cheddar doesn’t boast the same name-protection as some other European cheeses, which can only call themselves by certain names if they come from specific geographic areas. As such, cheddar is produced in many parts of the world. The first cheddars were created in Medieval times, in the village of Somerset, England, and it is the “Somerset model” that some use to determine a true traditional farmstead cheddar.

Randolph Hodgson, the proprietor of Neal’s Yard Dairy, has worked with the Slow Food Movement to develop standards for artisan Somerset cheddar. These include using unpasteurized milk from a farm’s own herd, employing traditional “cheddaring” methods, like stacking and turning the curd by hand, and aging at least 11 months. Aside from geographic considerations, Fiscalini fits the bill, and is the only American farm to do so. (Shelburne Farms makes a clothbound cheddar, but it is in extremely limited production.)

After enjoying this tangy cheese, it will be harder for me to take the cheddars for granted. Pair the complex Fiscalini with a hearty ale or a fruity wine, and crisp apple slices. Due to quality and price, I’d make it a nibbly cheese, rather than a cooking cheese. And I’d certainly give it its rightful place on the cheese board.

Girlfigcheesecourse

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Slow News Day: Vermont’s First IHOP to Serve Real VT Maple Syrup

Posted on June 9, 2009 | 4 comments

When International House of Pancakes finally opened a franchise in Vermont (the 50th state to get an IHOP), its General Manager, Sam Handy, Jr., successfully petitioned the franchisor to allow the South Burlington shop to serve real maple syrup, instead of the corn syrup blend that is served at the other approximately 1,400 IHOPs in North America. Handy is quoted in the New York Times as saying, “(Vermont is) a small state, and buying local is important.” He also wants to explore buying eggs and dairy items from local farmers.

So, it seems that fast food, in Vermont anyway, just inched a tiny bit slower.

Not to be outdone, New York Senator Chuck Schumer recently proposed to IHOP CEO Julie Stewart that New York State’s IHOPs similarly wean themselves off their mass-produced toppings and onto maple syrup made in New York. This is not the senator’s first foray into the maple. Last year, he introduced legislation designed to — wait for it — tap into his state’s underused maples by providing incentives to landowners for producing syrup. More information on New York’s maple situation is here.

I love maple syrup, and one in particular, which we have been getting delivered (a luxury) since trying it and many like it on a delightful road trip through New England five summers ago. That syrup is from Sugarbush Farm, in Woodstock, VT, where we got to touch the actual maple trees and learn about the entire tapping and production process. We also learned that we generally prefer the robust Grade A dark amber syrup to the lighter Grade A medium amber, or the even lighter “fancy” syrups.

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Lucky me. My daughter and her friend whipped up some French toast for themselves and for me this weekend. We all agreed that it turned out picture-perfect, especially topped with Sugarbush maple syrup and a helping of super-sweet Delta Blue organic blueberries from Stockton, CA., the closest-grown berries we could find.

Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Posted in Butter and Egg, Home Ec., Road Trip, Slow News, Sustainability, To Market

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Slow News Follow-Up: Berkeley Attempts to Squash Home Garden

Posted on June 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

No sooner had I posted about the spate of modern homesteaders who are reclaiming their front yards for real growing and community-enhancing spaces than I received a link from my good friend Judd Williams to this piece by Chris Carlsson of the superb SFStreetsblog. It’s about a town that’s attempting to squash a successful long-time front-yard vegetable garden, in favor of something more, say, ornamental and wasteful, like a lawn.

Are you sitting down? This isn’t some planned, gated, sterile community that’s refusing to let its citizens grow a little food in the space where the traditional suburban lawn might go. It’s Berkeley, CA, of all places, bearing down on a gentle Green Thumb who, like many in the enviably sunny, green town, is attempting to produce something of value on his land.

One of the many citations the gardener/homeowner, Asa Dodsworth, has received is for “Unpermitted Garden Beds,” which carries a five hundred dollar a day fine. That’s right — Growing food in the front yard is outlawed.

I, frankly, don’t get it, especially after seeing the pictures of Dodsworth’s mellow, unassuming garden. If this seems wrong to you, too, Chris’ piece provides a lot more information about the situation and which decision makers to write to try to rectify it.

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Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Cheese of the Week: Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano Goat Cheese

Posted on June 8, 2009 | 1 comment

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Continuing down our Girl and the Fig cheese plate, I really enjoyed the Queso de Mano goat cheese, from Jim Schott’s award-winning Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy in Niwot, Colorado. This is a superb raw-milk cheese — it has a wonderful, prominent, goat taste that is slightly sweet, and carries with it an undertone of nuttiness, as well as a hint of its farmstead grass and herbs. All that makes it terrifically complex and interesting, especially if you love goat-milk cheeses, as I do.

The Queso de Mano also manages to combine a firm texture with a velvety mouth feel. The cheese is aged four months and has a natural washed rind. It would be great with toasted almonds, fresh cherries or apricots, and a good fruity red wine.

For a long time, Haystack Mountain was the last remaining dairy in Boulder County. Sadly, local and other business expenses forced the company to sell its goats to the State Prison in Canon City, Colorado, which has operated an inmate-run dairy for 70 years. The upshot, though, is that the company is still producing and distributing its fabulous cheese from its headquarters in Longmont, Colorado, inmates at Canon City are doing fruitful work and learning a skill, and the Nubian, LaMancha, Sanaan and Nubian Cross goats are continuing to thrive and produce the milk that goes into Haystack Mountain’s cheeses.

The Queso de Mano is the second cheese from the right:

Girlfigcheesecourse

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

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Cheese of the Week: Bohemian Creamery Bo Poisse

Posted on June 1, 2009 | Leave a comment

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I recently ducked into the fantastic Girl and the Fig restaurant in Sonoma and shared a wonderful cheese course with My Man. Of the six cheeses, the Bo Poisse, from Lisa Gottreich and Miriam Block’s new Bohemian Creamery in Bodega, was the absolute standout. The first thing that hits you about Bo Poisse is its sweet, pungent smell. When you bite into it, you find a delightfully creamy, almost wet cheese that tastes of mushroom, cream, a slight bit of ash. This is followed up by a lusty, tangy finish that brings with it more than a hint of a barnyard on a hot afternoon.

This cheese totally commits — As such it’s not for everyone. I loved it.

Bohemian Creamery is a small-batch, artisanal producer. They handcraft each round on their seven-acre farm, much of the milk coming from their own goats. The cows-milk Bo Poisse is made with milk from neighboring Jerseys. The washed-rind cheese is created using an Epoisse recipe. The French village of Epoisses is known for its pungent, soft, washed-rind cheeses. Napoleon was supposedly a fan, as was early epicurean/writer Brillat-Savarin, who called it “the king of all cheeses”.

The restaurant’s bubbly, sweet Fig Royale proved a nice companion to the complex cheese. I could see Medjool dates working with it, as well. Though my husband had other favorites on the cheese board (that’s what makes the world go ’round, plus more Bo Poisse for me), I can’t wait to have this cheese again, and I wish Bohemian Creamery great cheese-wheel-shaped success.

Look for my other reviews from this tasting, as we work our way down the cheese plate, bit by bit.

Girlfigcheesecourse

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

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