A taste of Oka more than 50 years ago—when the Trappists still made it—sparked in me a lifelong love for cheese. That love has ripened into full-blown passion as more and more mouth-watering cheeses are being churned out by artisan, farmstead and specialty cheesemakers across Canada. I’d like to share that passion by making CheeseLover.ca an informative and entertaining meeting place for all who love cheese, especially #CDNcheese.
My business background is in magazine publishing and event promotion so don’t be surprised to see me explore the needs and wants of cheese consumers and the cheese industry in Canada as time goes by. As a custom magazine publisher, I produce Circumnavigator and Glory Road. Two events (actually, two coast-to-coast series of events) that I started in the U.S. and later sold were West Marine Trawler Fest and The Great American Motorcycle Show. Both the boating events and the motorcycle shows still thrive today.
In 2011, I founded The Great Canadian Cheese Festival which ran for seven years in Prince Edward County bringing cheese lovers and cheesemakers together in a wonderful way not seen before in Canada. In 2014, I founded the Canadian Cheese Awards, the biggest cheese judging and competition in Canada. In 2016, I started the Artisan Cheese Night Market at St. Lawrence Market in Toronto in conjunction with the Awards.
So, you might rightly assume that I live, dream and enjoy Canadian cheese. You bet I do!
Visit often as I aim to add new content regularly. Be sure to sign up for notification of new posts by email using the form in the upper right of each page. And please do leave a comment as feedback is always welcome.
Cheese be with you!
—Georgs Kolesnikovs
20 comments
Hi Georgs, would love to get in contact with you in regards to this website! Please give me a call at 613.476.2148 or sent me an email to the above.
Thank you
Caitlin den Boer
Cheese Intern
Economic Development Office
Corporation of The County of Prince Edward
Hi Caitlin – I’m with Provincial Fine Foods and I would love to connect with you. Drop me a line at laurenatprovincialfinefoodsdotcom.
I’ll be glad to speak with you, Caitlin, and help in any way I can. You folks at InvestInCheese.ca are doing a great job in promoting Ontario cheese.
—Georgs
Hello Georges,
The mice around town are squeaking you have news regarding your supposed cheese competition. Do share.
Yes, the inaugural Canadian Cheese Awards/Le Concours des fromages fins canadiens is a go, with judging taking place at the University of Guelph in late February, and the awards presentation and tasting show on April 7 at St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. In January, our plan is to get the word out to cheese producers and call for entries, as can be seen at CheeseAwards.ca. Starting in February, we’ll go public, inviting everyone–trade and consumers–to attend the Awards ceremonies and tasting on April 7.
Best of luck! I hope that many cheese are submitted. Hopefully the tastebuds of your six jury members will not be quickly overwhelmed. How will you promote the Grand Champion, category champions and the finalists to media, retailers and consumers?
I have linked your blog on mine and hope you will do the same:
http://cheesemonger.wordpress.com
Thanks,
Marcella Wright
Life in the fast lane; we are in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia heading south tomorrow into the Gobi
to film camel cheese! Would love to get some feedback from you guys about our camel cheese project;
Any specific questions you would like to ask the Mongolian Nomads making camel cheese?
Your input will be very useful for our research!
check out http://www.bethecheese.org;
All the best!
Talk soon!
Sebastian
Georgs! It’s me…Karen….one of your wonderful sales people from Great American days…
Some of the best days of my life!
Cheese huh? COOL.
Write me!
xoxo
Karen
Hi There,
I am an organic farmer in the Peterborough area. I am very interested in making my own cheese. Do you know of any cheese making courses or internships in the area.
Any information would be very appreciated. Great website! Thanks.
Kelly
Take a look at the Cheese Technology course at University of Guelph. Join the Canadian Cheese Society to meet like-minded people. Talk to Margaret Morris at Glengarry Cheesemaking and Dairy Supply. All can be found via Google. And of course attend The Great Canadian Cheese Festival and take the Invest In Cheese seminar.
Good luck!
Good morning George: I noticed your message on Drew’s blog re the Cheese Festival (he’s just started following me, so I checked his site). You may be interested to know I also posted about that festival on my most recent blog page. Pls check it out, I think you’d be pleased. In the meantime, I’m delighted to find this site of yours. I will definitely find time to read it in more detail. Good stuff! Regard, Sheila Tucker
George, Love your site! Being based in Boston (USA), I only wish I could get my hands on more of the great Canadian cheeses I discovered at the 2011 ACS conference in Montreal. As your readers demonstrate a great interest in cheese education, I thought they might like to know about the new Academie Opus Caseus, offering professional development programs for cheesemongers and others working in the industry, at Mons Fromager-Affineur in France….in English! http://www.academie-mons.com.
Hello Georgs,
My name is Jeff Pychel and I’m the Travel Architect and Tour Leader of an upcoming 7-Night Cheese Tour of Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, scheduled for September 15 to 22, 2013.
Tour highlights include visiting the iconic Cheese towns of Gouda, Edam and Beemster in Holland, sample Trappist Beer and Cheese in a monastery in Chimay, revel in the art of Chocolate and Beer in the historical city of Brussels and ending at the epicenter of gastronomy – Paris!
The Cheese tour webpage can be viewed at:
http://www.travelbrokertours.com/current-tours/31-the-big-cheese-tour-of-amsterdam-brussels-and-paris-starts-15-sept-2013
The tour will be lead by myself and hosted by special guest Kevin Durkee of CHEESEWERKS, an Artisan Grilled Cheese restaurant in Toronto.
I do hope you; your colleagues, followers, friends and fellow cheese lovers consider joining me on this wonderful one-of-a-kind cheese tour. I would also like to offer you all a $100 savings if you do decide to join me. The tour is limited to only 16 participants.
Please feel free to contact me for any further information.
Warmest Regards,
Jeff Pychel
Tour Architect and Tour Leader
The Travel Broker and Cruise Centre
1758 Bath Road, Kingston
Ontario Canada
K7M 4Y2
Ph: 1-613-389-7914
Toll: 1-888-830-5324
Mobile: 1-647-997-1532
Fax: 1-613-389-9028
Email: jpychel@thetravelbroker.ca
Website: thetravelbroker.ca
Skype: thetravelbroker
Hi George,
Since last year we produce our sheep cheese. We’re located just north of Barrie, near Midland, ON. We own a small cheese plant and we produce sheep cheese in all kinds of flavours: plain, Dill with garlic, Roasted Garlic, Chilli, Cumin, Greek herbs, Italian herbs .We got our milk from a dairy sheep farm located in Grey county.
We would appreciate if you could add us to Canadian Cheesemaker Directory.
if you would like to know more about our business, please visit:
http://www.justsaycheese.ca
thanks a lot and please visit our plant when you are near Midland to taste our cheeses.
Hans and Saskia
Say Cheese
Thanks for getting in touch. We’ll be glad to list you in the Canadian Cheesemaker Directory, and add you to the Ontario cheese trail map we maintain.
All the best!
I am interested in increasing my cheese knowledge and going abroad to do this. A friend has recommended “woofing” in Europe. My question is whether anyone has done this and could recommend a place.
Hi Georgs,
I just recently launched a brand new online store for Black River Cheese which includes great new things like our monthly cheese club, convenient 3-packs and the right elements to make home delivery of cheese a rock solid proposition including flat rate shipping and sealed cold packs.
http://shop.blackrivercheese.com/
Thanks for being such a rock solid supporter of small craft cheese producers in Canada. Also, take a look at our rich new photos of the staff and cheese making process as some of them look kind of like your ‘Cheesemaker for a day’ from Fifth Town!
Dave
PS – Please send me a note if you would like to do a Black River contest for your readers.
Hi Georgs,
I work with Prof. Art Hill at the University of Guelph. I am hoping to connect with you as I am on the hunt for some materials.
Leigh West
lewest@uoguelph.ca