Cheese festival, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Great Canadian Cheese Festival, Prince Edward County

Calling all cheese lovers to Prince Edward County!

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That's the slogan of Dairy Farmers of Canada, Diamond Sponsor of The Great Canadian Cheese Festival.

Historic Crystal Palace and the Picton Fairgrounds all around it will make for quite a mouth-watering scene on June 4-5.

That’s when the first-ever Great Canadian Cheese Festival takes place, bringing together the country’s leading cheesemakers from coast-to-coast so cheese lovers can meet to learn, talk, taste and buy the best in artisan, farmstead and specialty cheese—and sample fine wine, craft beer, cider and artisanal foods.

The two-day Festival features:

On Saturday, June 4, a keynote presentation to kick off proceedings, a full day of cheese-tasting seminars, pairing cheese with wine, beer and cider, a buffet lunch and, in the evening, outstanding chefs using cheese to create tasting dishes for the Cooks & Curds Cheese Gala.

Think cheesemaker Ruth Klahsen, cheese educator Julia Rogers and sommelier Andrew Laliberté among the tasting presenters. Think Jamie Kennedy, Michael Blackie and Anthony Rose among the renowned chefs.

On Sunday, June 5, a Cheese Fair & Artisan Food Market featuring more than 30 Canadian cheesemakers, more than 100 artisan and farmstead cheeses to sample and purchase, winemakers and craft brewers offering tastings, too, plus a host of artisan food producers, with a tutored tasting of Canadian Cheese Grand Prix winners, a cheesemaking demonstration and whey more.

Think Fromagerie du Presbytère from Québec, Glengarry Fine Cheese from Ontario and Cows Creamery from P.E.I. among the represented cheesemakers from across Canada. Think Harwood Estate Vineyards and Wineries among the wineries, Mill Street Brewery among the craft brewers, and Major Craig’s Chutney among the artisan food producers.

Plus: A six-hour, guided tour of local cheese plants and dairy farms on Friday or Saturday.

Bonus: On Friday, the Festival eve, cheese-themed dinners at County restaurants such as Angéline’s Restaurant & Inn featuring acclaimed chef Michael Potters.

The bad news is the Festival is still almost three months away. The good news is earlybird ticket sales have started—which means money saved on admission can be spent on cheese!

For cheese lovers, culinary tourists and foodies, come the first weekend in June, all roads will lead to Picton in the heart of Prince Edward County, Ontario’s fastest growing culinary destination.

Crystal Palace was built in 1890 on the Picton Fairgrounds in Picton, in the heart of Ontario's Prince Edward County.

Cheese festival, Vermont cheese

Getting to know Vermont cheese

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We’re in Vermont for the sold-out Vermont Cheesemakers Festival which takes place today. Yesterday, we took a guided tour to three farmstead cheese producers—and tasted our first Vermont cheese. The tour was conducted by the personable Chris Howell of Vermont Farm Tours.

First stop: Crawford Family Farm, the home of Vermont Ayr Farmstead Cheese.

Sherry Crawford in the cheese cave at Crawford Family Farm.

Second  stop: Dancing Cow Farm, home of four cheeses named after four dances.

Karen Getz with her newest cheese, a light blue called Lindy Hop.

Third stop: Twig Farm, home of farmstead goat milk cheese.

Michael Lee with Dot, one of his Alpine goats.

What is so striking about these three cheesemakers is how small they are, how devoted they are to farming, what care they give to their animals, the handling of the milk and the making of excellent cheese, and, especially, how hard they work.

More, later.

Andy Shay, Artisan Cheese Marketing, Cheese festival, Cheese plates, Events, Ewenity Dairy Co-op, Fromagerie du Presbytère, Grey Owl, Kathy Guidi, Le Bleu d'Élizabeth, Louis d'Or, Monforte Dairy, Pied-de-Vent, Poutine, Toscano

The joy of working over lunch—with Canadian cheese

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Jamie Kennedy's take on poutine at Gilead Cafe.

Planning is well under way for the first Great Canadian Cheese Festival in 2011. That often means lunch meetings which, happily, means cheese on the table.

I had a chance to meet with Canadian cheese maven Kathy Guidi over lunch at Jamie Kennedy’s Gilead Cafe recently. What a treat it was to talk to Kathy—what with her decades of experience in Canadian cheese—and to enjoy one of Chef’s unique poutines: perfect frites with a healthy dollop of sauce bolognaise laced with Monforte Dairy’s Toscano cheese. I could have easily ordered a second serving but we had decided on a cheese plate for dessert, so I had to hold myself in check.

The cheese plate featured:

Le Rassembleu, an organic farmstead blue cheese from Fromagiers de la Table Ronde in the Laurentides region of Quebec. It has a lively creamy flavour, with the aroma of hay. The producers are fourth-generation cheesemakers.

Mouton Rouge, on the other hand, pleases the nose with a fresh and grassy aroma. A raw sheep-milk cheese created by Ewenity Dairy Co-operative in Southwestern Ontario, it has a lovely buttery taste that plays against the nutty reddish rind.

Grey Owl, a pasteurized goat-milk chèvre from Fromagerie la Detour in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, near the New Brunswick border, looks and tastes outstanding, from its snowy white interior to riper regions to the black ash exterior.

Le Bleu d’Élizabeth, Pied-de-Vent and Louis d'Or at the home office.

A working lunch in the home office with festival co-ordinator Kip Jacques isn’t half bad either when the cheese plate features:

Pied-de-Vent, from the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is an an all-time favorite of mine. Smelly, creamy and tasty, Pied-de-Vent is my idea of a great cheese. Despite what some cheesemongers may tell you, it is available in Ontario.

Louis d’Or, a flavourful, complex Gruyere-like washed-rind cheese is made with the raw milk of the cheesemaker’s own Holstein and Jersey cows at Fromagerie du Presbytère in Central Quebec. Quite possibly, it’s Canada’s best “Swiss cheese.”

Le Bleu d’Élizabeth comes from the same Fromagerie du Presbytère and is an outstanding example of a Quebec blue. No, it’s defintely not named after Queen Elizabeth but rather Sainte-Élizabeth de Warwick. The creamery occupies a former rectory in the village.

There is one other cheese plate in my notes from another working lunch but it was so disappointing that the proper thing to do would be to return to the name restaurant for another tasting before naming names.

One name I’d like to mention is Ezra’s Pound, a fair-trade coffee shop on Toronto’s Dupont Street. I’m so glad Andy Shay, a man of many talents when it comes to cheese, suggested we meet there as the croissants are to die for.

—Georgs Kolesnikovs

Have we mentioned that Georgs Kolesnikovs, Cheese-Head-in-Chief at CheeseLover.ca, loves his cheese?

Cheese festival, St. Albert Cheese Co-op

St. Albert cow won’t have to mooove

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Statue of cow can remain on roof of Cheddar Et Cetera—for now.

A bovine brouhaha has erupted in Ottawa over a Holstein statue on the roof of a cheese shop owned by St. Albert Cheese Co-operative. For now, the life-size cow can stay atop Cheddar Et Cetera in the east-end suburb of Orleans.

Ottawa’s bylaw inspectors had demanded the bogus bovine be put out to pasture on grounds that it contravenes a city regulation banning rooftop advertising. Not to be cowed, store manager Jacques Leury quickly collected the signatures of more than 2,000 customers on a petition.

City councillor Bob Monette then came to Bossy’s defence and orchestrated a stay of execution until the city planning staff can review the bylaw on signage. A report is not expected until late in 2010.

St. Albert Cheese Co-op has been making cheese since 1894. It produces cheddars and specialty cheeses and hosts the annual Festival de la Curd which last year attracted  40,000 people. This year, the festival takes place August 18-22 in St. Albert east of Ottawa.

Cheese festival, Cowgirl Creamery

Cheese overload at California’s artisan festival

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Peggy Smith of Cowgirl Creamery arranges the array of cheeses to be sampled at the seminar she and Sue Conley presented.

Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? At California’s Artisan Cheese Festival this weekend, the answer, happily, was a resounding yes.

Over a period of five and a half hours, I tasted 24 excellent cheeses and sampled 14 wonderful wines, the best the Golden State has to offer. But by then it was still only 3:30 in the afternoon—and there was an eight-course feast still to come!

My only choice was a nap, and a long walk through the wetlands south of the Sheraton Sonoma in Petaluma, about an hour north of San Francisco, venue for the fourth annual California’s Artisan Cheese Festival.

I came to the festival in search of ideas for the first Great Canadian Cheese Festival that Cheese Lover Productions will produce in June 2011. (The formal announcement will be made this June.)

All along I’ve known that a successful cheese festival would be a mix of educational seminars, entertaining speakers, social events and a vendor marketplace–with lots of great cheese, wine, beer and food to sample. Here in Petaluma I’ve seen all the ingredients at play in a first-class event. For an event promoter, it’s been downright inspirational.

Getting to meet the icons of California cheemaking, Peggy Smith and Sue Conley of Cowgirl Creamery, was simply icing on the cheesecake.

—Georgs Kolesnikovs

Georgs Kolesnikovs is Cheese-Head-in-Chief at CheeseLover.ca.

Cooks, Curds & Cuvées was the grand finale of a day featuring too much of a good thing. Click on the image for a clearer view of the menu.