The Word on Cheese

A few months ago we took the initiative to get in touch with Culture Cheese Magazine, America’s first cheese-devoted magazine, to help spread the word about Invest In Cheese.

A unique initiative to Eastern, Ontario Invest In Cheese was launched last year to take advantage of the high groth opportunitiy in small scale and artisan cheese. This industry is currently a $300 million category in Ontario. Over the next decade, this number is expected to grow to $400 million.
The current market share of the Ontario artisan cheese industry is approximately $5 million and over the next 10 years there is an opportunity to increase the production and distribution of artisan cheese to capture a larger share of the market.
For more than a century, Eastern Ontario has been known for its cheese and combining the already existing cheese facilities in the Four-County Region, along with the knowledge of this growth opportunity, makes the region an area full of passionate and successful cheesemakers with room for many more.
One of the first steps the four Counties took together was to develop a website that focused on artisan cheese to help investors establish themselves here. Thus Invest In Cheese was born.
Last week I was like a kid on candy when the magazine arrived with our information in it. It was an exciting step in our direction forward. Here is the article snippit.

In other news, as you will have noticed, our website has had a bit of a makeover recently. Please take a little tour around and let us know what you think, we weclome your comments.

Caitlin

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Where The Cheese Industry Comes Together

The 5th Annual Ontario Cheese Society Conference
Blog courtesy of Andy Shay

After fifteen years in the fine food business, one thing I have learned is that being on the ground is worth 10,000 words.  You can read, research, talk to the subjects and producers and know a lot about the subject, but it is not until you go there and are on the ground and suddenly understand all the things that you had not even considered, that the true picture, the lay of the land instantly crystallizes and is incredibly clear.


If you are in any part of the cheese business, milk production, cheese production, marketing, distribution, retailing a restaurant or even thinking about becoming one of these, then being on the ground means being at the fifth annual Ontario Cheese Conference on Monday April 26 at University of Toronto’s Hart House.

The conference is a day-long session of presentations, panel discussions, tastings, and film screenings followed by a public marketplace for tasting Ontario wines and cheeses from Canada with the ability to meet the producers and purchase the cheeses as well.  The Marketplace is included in the price of admission for conference goers, but is also open to the public for $30.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.ontariocheese.org.

The Conference sessions will include:

- A snapshot of the Canadian cheese market
- A panel discussion lead by Scott McKenzie, head of George Brown College’s new Cheese for Hospitality program, the panel will focus on the needs and trends of restaurateurs cheese service
- A panel discussion of Issues for Canadian cheesemakers featuring David Wood of Salt Spring Island Cheese and Scott Linkletter of Cows Dairy.
- A tasting of cheeses from Canada’s highways and byways lead by Julia Rogers
- A screening of the documentary film ”A Monks Secret” hosted by Kathy Guidi and followed by a tasting of the cheese.
- A report on the upcoming EU talks and the possible ramifications and implications for Canadian cheese.
- Facts or myths about milk – a panel discussion exposing the truth about goat, sheep and cow milk.
- Key note address by American Cheese Society President David Gremmels on how the ACS coalesced into a national society

The who’s who of the cheese business attends this conference and it is the one time each year that you can find these people all in one room at the same time.

Admission is $275.  Details of the conference and online ticket sales will be available strating the last week of February at www.ontariocheese.org.

I hope to see you there!

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Global Cheese Day: “#cheesesunday” launched via Twitter by “Invest In Cheese”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PICTON, ON – Invest In Cheese is making sure Cheese has its’ own day in the twitterverse. Launched January 17th #cheesesunday was marked by a collaborative effort between @InvestInCheese and @CurdNerd (UK based).

Invest in Cheese (IIC) is an Eastern Ontario initiative seeking to attract investment in the growing artisan cheese industry. IIC is using a multi-layered social media strategy that includes blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and website to get the word “out there” and connect with cheese enthusiasts who may wish to turn their passion into a business.

For more than a century, Eastern Ontario has been known for its cheesemaking and dairy farming. Combining already existing cheese facilities in the region with the emerging artisanal cheesemaking trend, gives Eastern Ontario the opportunity to become the premier cheesemaking region in Canada

With this in mind, four Counties in Eastern Ontario: Frontenac, Hastings, Lennox and Addington and Prince Edward, joined forces to take advantage of this high growth opportunity and work together to develop and attract artisan cheese makers and facilities to the region.

One of the first steps the four Counties undertook was to develop a marketing initiative to outline the business growth opportunities and encourage artisan cheese start up: www.investincheese.ca was launched to get the word out.

Backgrounder: Trending Topics on Twitter have become increasingly popular with the evolution of ‘hash tags.’ For Twitter neophytes, a hashtag is a way to unite global Tweets around a particular topic. Basically, these tags help those who seek similar content discover your Tweets. Hashtags are created by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword as you write your Twitter update.

The most common Trending Topics based on days of the week have become #followfriday or #musicmonday. On #followfriday Twitter users suggest other Twitter accounts for their friends to follow. #musicmonday follows the same idea with users suggesting their favourite artist or songs.

‘From news stories, to the latest buzz about movies, music, video games, and TV shows, to in-jokes running wild, the trending topics reflect what is occupying the most people’s attention on Twitter at any one time.’ (Twitter)

Invest In Cheese noted the significance of these days and moved forward to determine what ‘day’ would be most suited. After polling Twitter Followers under the #cheese topic, the idea was greeted with excitement and #cheesesunday was launched.

For the full Press Release Please go to: #cheesesunday

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