A student in the Cheesemaking Technology course at University of Guelph learns how to pour Camembert-style cheese into forms.
Here’s your chance to get real cheese smarts.
The University of Guelph has been offering some version of its cheesemaking course since 1893, though its present professor, Art Hill, began teaching his Cheesemaking Technology Short Course with the Food Sciences department in 1986.
The acclaimed course—designed for artisan and commercial cheesemakers, cheese hobbyists, and government and sales personnel who work with cheesemakers—focuses on the science and technology of cheesemaking. Students attend lectures and apply the principles learned in a cheesemaking laboratory.
“The focus is on understanding the manufacturing principles of technological families of cheese, rather than becoming expert in the manufacture of particular cheese varieties,” says Professor Hill. The program is offered annually in the spring and runs for five days. The next course offering runs from June 8-12, 2015. Those interested can visit the course website.
Video Wednesday: Scott Jensen, owner of Jensen Cheese in Simcoe, Ontario, gives a tour of the Simcoe plant, demonstrating storage and aging, cutting and packaging of award-winning artisan cheese.
The 81 finalists in the 2015 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix have been announced. The prestigious biennial competition sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Canada saw 268 cheeses submitted in 27 categories.
The winners will be announced April 22 at a Gala of Champions in Toronto.
Quebec, home to the majority of Canada’s cheese producers, dominates the list of 81 finalists with 31 cheeses. Naturally, some of the larger producers have the most finalists: Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser, 7 finalists, Sylvan Star Cheese, 6, and Natural Pastures Cheese Company and Fromagerie du Presbytère, 5.
The competition, open to cheese made exclusively with Canadian cow’s milk, first started in 1998 to promote achievement and innovation in cheesemaking and to spotlight the quality of Canadian milk.
The first 1,000 cheese lovers through the doors at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival will receive a free sampler of fresh cheese curds made by St. Albert Cheese Co-operative earlier in the day.
It’s one of the many ways we’ll be celebrating the fifth anniversary of the biggest cheese show in Canada. It also celebrates remarkable recovery by St. Albert Cheese Co-op from a devastating fire two years ago.
The free cheese curds will be available on Saturday, June 6. We have another giveaway in the works for Sunday, June 7.
FESTIVAL ADMISSION INCLUDES:
• Sample and purchase more than 150 outstanding Canadian artisan and farmstead cheeses from 30+ Canadian cheesemakers coast to coast.
• Plus artisan foods, plus fine wines and craft beers, plus a food court. In total, more than 500 different cheeses, foods and beverages on offer.
• An insulated Festival cooler bag for hauling fromage and other purchases home.
• Glass for sampling wine and beer for 19+.
• Admittance on first-come, first-served basis to seminars in the All You Need Is Cheese Annex presented by Dairy Farmers of Canada.
Plan to make a weekend of it in Prince Edward County, as one day won’t be enough to sample all 500 cheeses, foods and beverages on offer—and see all that the County has to offer: Three dozen wineries, two cheese plants plus spectacular Sandbanks Provincial Park.
Find accommodations to suit your tastes and budget by clicking here. For assistance, telephone Prince Edward County Chamber of Tourism & Commerce at 1.800.640.4717.
Spread the cheese love. Use the hashtag #TGCCF when tweeting about the biggest cheese show in Canada.
There is no end to the variety of cheeses made at home by amateurs.
The cheese lovers who organize The Great Canadian Cheese Festival every June are planning to host Canadian Amateur Cheesemaking Awards, the first-ever judging and competition for home cheesemakers.
The mission is to recognize and honour the best in amateur cheesemaking and to provide encouragement and feedback to home cheesemakers.
It’s possible the competition will be expanded to include home cheesemakers in the U.S.
Would you be interested in entering your cheese for judging? You won’t personally have be present to participate as you can safely ship cheese in a cooled box.
Please indicate your interest by emailing Ian Treuer at competition@cheesefestival.ca. Ian is acting as Competition Co-ordinator. He blogs about his adventures as a home cheesemaker at Much To Do About Cheese.
Jackie Armet, the Festival’s Cheese Co-ordinator, who also serves as Cheese Co-ordinator for Canadian Cheese Awards/Le Concours des fromages fins canadiens, will oversee the new competition.
Awards will be presented for best in each cheese category. Judging reports will be issued for each cheese entered. Subject to confirmation when rules are issued, the categories and awards will be as follows:
Fresh Cheese
Bloomy Rind Cheese
Washed Rind Cheese
Blue Cheese
Firm Cheese
Best of Canada
Best of U.S.
Best of Show.
The first-ever amateur cheesemaking competition takes place this June 6-7 in conjunction with the fifth anniversary Great Canadian Cheese Festival in Picton, Ontario, two hours east of Toronto, three hours north of Syracuse, New York, four hours from Montréal.
If you’re interested in entering your cheese made at home, let us hear from you!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for CheeseLover.ca.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 56,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 21 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
We lower the curtain on 2014 with Vanessa Simmons, respected cheese sommelier at Savvy Company in Ottawa, recalling the 12 Canadian cheeses that made the year memorable for her palate. Check out her tasting notes and make up your shopping list for the next visit to a cheese shop.
Childhood sweethearts Michel Pichet and Marie-Claude Harvey of award-winning Fromagerie F.X. Pichet near Québec City.
Baluchon is the story of a love lost and, two decades later, found again.
Marie-Claude Harvey and Michel Pichet were childhood sweethearts in the village of Champlain, Québec, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River near Québec City. But by the time they graduated from high school, they had drifted apart. She found a husband, he found a wife, they both had families before their marriages ended.
Twenty years later they met again. He owned an organic dairy farm. She wanted to make cheese. Obviously, their love was still there, now fired by a common passion for dairy farming and cheesemaking. Thus, they married and 10 years ago, Fromagerie F.X. Pichet came to be in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Québec. Baluchon was their first-born cheese.
(The creamery was sold in 2017 to Abdel Ould Baba Ali and his son Yacine and became known as Fromagerie Baluchon. In August 2020, the fromagerie was purchased by Fromagerie L’Ancêtre, Québec’s leading producer of organic cheese and butter.)
Le Baluchon: Canadian Cheese of the Year.
The name Baluchon in French refers to the small bundle of belongings travelers carried before the advent of mass transportation. Such a traveler, as a mouse character called Hapi, appears on all packaging for cheeses produced at the fromagerie on the 260-acre farm called La Ferme F.X. Pichet, after Michel’s father.
Michel and Marie-Claude are devoted to organic farming and cheesemaking. In Québec, the certification process is rigorous, but they cannot see proceeding otherwise. Michel says: “It’s our way of life.”
Their way of life lead them to dominate the 2014 Canadian Cheese Awards/Le Concours des fromages fins canadiens with Baluchon being named Canadian Cheese of the Year in addition to Best Organic Cheese and Best Semi-Soft Cheese.
In Sélection Caseus 2014, the prestigious competition for Québec cheese, Baluchon was awarded Prix du Public in the semi-soft category. Even five years ago, in the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix, Baluchon was declared best organize cheese.
Even as Baluchon begins to curdle, already the sweet dairy taste is there.
Baluchon is exquisite, exemplifying the best in an organic, semi-soft cheese with a washed rind. It is made with thermized cow’s milk and ripened for a minimum of two months. In Québec, thermized milk—heated to 60 degrees Celsius for 15 seconds—is considered raw milk.
Baluchon is a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth cheese that tastes of hazelnut, cream, butter and leaves a slight clover aftertaste, so you really do taste the terroir.
The compact cheese plant is located on the farm in Champlain steps from the family home. Affinage rooms and the retail store are 20 kilometres away in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade.
Fromagerie F.X. Pichet in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Québec.
When they were getting started more than a decade ago, Marie-Claude and Michel consulted André Fouillet, a cheese expert from France, who recommended they use a cheesemaking process he developed when working with Oka, the Canadian classic. Fouillet consulted with a number of Québec fromageries, witness the many semi-soft, washed-rind cheeses produced in the region. Jonathan Portelance, a collaborator at the time, was inspired by the fruity aroma and floral taste of the French Comté.
“But Balachon is unique,” says Marie-Claude, “because of our milk and our way of making cheese. Right from the start, we wanted to use non-pasteurized milk—for the taste. Good cheese starts with good milk. We prefer to use pure, organic milk because the integrity of milk is important to us. With conventional milk, you just don’t know what’s all in the milk.”
An organic milk producer and cheesemaker (who, incidentally, works at giant Saputo) suggested the name Baluchon as the cheese could be served on tables around the world. She still supplies some milk and remains a good friend.
Michel Pichet’s talents as an artist are visible at the fromagerie.
Why has Baluchon been so successful?
“Because of the distinctive aroma and taste that’s stems from a certain synergy,” says Marie-Claude. “Our milk comes from a mix of breeds, Holsteins, Swiss Browns and the Canadienne. In our pastures, we have a mix of five or six different plants, grasses, clover, sweat peas and so on. In the plant, we have a mix of talented people. All that ‘team work’ comes together in le Baluchon.”
Cheesemaker Remi Gélinas starts a new batch of Baluchon.
Cheesemaker Remi Gélinas is a key member of the team. He’s been with the fromagerie less than two years but has 25 years of experience in cheese and milk production.
“Any tasty wine, red or white, that has a lot of aroma,” Marie-Claude says, expressing a preference for shiraz. In beer, she suggests a good amber or red.
Where is Baluchon available outside of Québec?
Baluchon now is widely available in cheese shops and Loblaws stores, especially since it was named Cheese of the Year in the spring. Baluchon and F.X. Pichet’s other cheeses are distributed by Fromages CDA which represents members of the Québec Artisan Cheese Guild. Telephone 1-866-448-7997 or 514-648-7997, email info@fromagescda.com.
Marie-Claude Harvey and Michel Pichet: poster children for organic dairy farming and cheesemaking in Québec.
—Georgs Kolesnikovs
Georgs Kolesnikovs, cheese-head-in-chief at CheeseLover.ca, is founder of Canadian Cheese Awards/Le Concours des fromages fins canadiens.
