Category Archives: Learning

American Cheese Society

Two Guild Members Posting from ACS Conference

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ACS-Jessie-JillianThe American Cheese Society’s annual conference,  “ACS 2016: Cheese in the Heartland”  runs July 27 to 3o this year in Des Moines, Iowa. This year the Maine Cheese Guild has awarded two members scholarships to attend: Jillian Smitherman  who has apprenticed with Appleton Creamery in 2014 and who works there part time, and Jessie Dowling, owner of Fuzzy Udder Creamery. These two cheesemakers are reporting on the conference via Facebook and Instagram. You can connect with them and follow along using these links:

mainecheeseguild on Instagram • mainecheeseguild on Facebook

Look for these hashtags: #‎acsdesmoines‬   ‪#‎acsconference2016  # mainecheese

Several Guild members have entered their cheeses in this year’s award competition. Keep your fingers crossed for their excellent Maine made cheese as it comes up against national competition. Guild members have come home with awards in previous years. Maine cheese rocks!

 

 

Event

Advanced Cheesemaking Class – PA Cheese Guild

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August 16-18, 2016

The PA Cheese Guild will sponsor an advanced cheesemaking class at Hidden Hills Dairy in Everett, PA.  Jim Wallace, consultant and technical expert at New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. will be the instructor.  Jim has travelled extensively and trained with traditional artisan and farmstead master cheesemakers in Europe and spent many years studying at the Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheese.  Along with the technical aspects of cheesemaking, Jim will share the stories and traditions behind the cheeses.

The three day class will include a variety of cheeses (bloomy rind, washed rind, alpine and pasta filata) and techniques for cheesemaking and affinage.   Cheeses will be made from goat, sheep and cows milks.  The class will include a session devoted to troubleshooting and evaluating cheeses brought by the participants.  Class size is limited to 10 participants.

Cost is $950* for members and $1050* fornon-members.

*Class fees include 2 nights lodging and all meals.

Registration for Advanced Cheesemaking Class
For additional information contact info@pacheeseguild.org

ACS Conference 2016 Grant Opportunity

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At our February 2016 the Guild committed to offering at least three ACS Conference Grants for Guild members to attend this year’s American Cheese Society conference in

Des Moines, Iowa July 27th through the 30th.

The grants would pay for the Early Bird conference fee of around $500, which would be roughly a third of total expenses for attending (you would be responsible for your ACS Membership, travel and lodging expenses). Grant recipients are then required to write and publish at least one detailed review of a workshop or educational experience they participated in at the conference to share with the rest of the Guild.

If you can commit to attending the ACS Conference this summer and would like to apply for a guild Grant to do so, please write

—one paragraph describing you and your cheese experience,
—and one paragraph describing what you seek to gain by attending the ACS conference;
—your name and contact info;
—send to info@mainecheeseguild.org with the subject “Guild Grant Request” BEFORE our April 11th meeting.

At that meeting the group will discuss the number of folks seeking a grant, and given our current finances how many grants the Guild can afford to offer. If there are more grant seekers than grants available, the Guild board will review the applications and choose whom will receive Grants before Early Bird registration starts on May 4th.

In the past the Guild has offered to pay the entry fee for any Guild member’s first ACS competition entry, and the Guild has also assembled a group shipment of all Guild entries into the competition. These items will be discussed and budgeted at the April meeting, and the decisions will be announced to the full Guild right after that.