Historic Crystal Palace and the Picton Fairgrounds 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 dished for the Cooks & Curds Cheese Gala.
On Sunday, June 5, a Cheese Fair & Artisan Cheese Market featuring more than 30 Canadian cheesemakers, more than 100 artisan and farmstead cheese 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.
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 dinner at County restaurants such as Angeline’s Restaurant & Inn featuring acclaimed chef Michael Potters
Tags: artisan cheese, Cheese Events, crystal palace, Great Canadian Cheese Festival, Invest In Cheese, picton, Prince Edward County
Posted in Cheese Events |
No Comments »
Our table/display at Brewer's Plate
I know this post is a bit overdue, but I still wanted to write something about my experience at the Brewer’s Plate at the Wychwood Barns in Toronto on April 6.
Rooted in slow food principles, Brewer’s Plate brings a number of Ontario chefs and restaurants together to pair spectacular locally grown and produced foods with Ontario craft beers. What a novel idea! Local food and yummy local craft beer!
Along with fellow Artisan Cheese Region Ambassador Stephen Paul, we hosted a table at this event in partnership with Barley Days Brewery. We provided Maple Dale cheese curd for people to sample partnered with a choice of one of four different Barley Days’ beers. Our curd was a big hit, and so was the concept of partnering cheese with beer.
For a bit more information on this event, here’s an interview we found with one of the event organizers Chris Lowry:
Blog post by Andrew Redden
Tags: artisan cheese, beer, brewer's plate, Hastings County, Lennox and Addington, local food, Maple Dale Cheese Artisan Hastings County
Posted in Cheese |
No Comments »
When researching the “art” of cheese there were several interesting and fun facts that I stumbled across. Here are just a few:
- The Pilgrims had cheese in their supplies on the Mayflower in 1620
- More than 8 billion pounds of cheese is produced every year
- There are nearly 2000 different varieties of cheese
- Cheese can be made from a variety of different milks including cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, horse and even camel
- The world’s largest consumers of cheese include:
- Greece (63 pounds per person each year)
- France (54 pounds)
- Iceland (53 pounds)
- Germany (48 pounds)
- Italy (44 pounds)
- Netherlands (40 pounds)
- United States (31 pounds)
- Australia (27 pounds)
- Canada (26 pounds)
- The United States produces more than 25 percent of the world’s supply of cheese – approximately 9 billion pounds per year.
- Processed American cheese was developed in 1915 by J. L. Kraft (founder of Kraft Foods) as an alternative to the traditional cheeses that had a short shelf life.
- Ounce of cheese is equivalent size to a dice
- All cheese rinds are edible…they may not taste great..but you can eat it
- Soft cheeses have less fat than hard cheeses…. because hard cheeses have less moisture, and therefore a higher percentage of fat
- Pizza Hut uses about 300 million pounds of cheese per year
…so let’s keep eating those tasty cheeses!!!
Guest blog post contributed by Lesley Galloway
by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd., “TLC Cooking- Cheese Facts”, http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/cheese-facts.htm
Tags: artisan cheese, Hastings County, Invest In Cheese
Posted in Cheese |
No Comments »
The Results are In
How to Start a Cheesemaking Business – Free Presentation
