Category Archives: Learning

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected] 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.

Workshop

Make Great Milk: Milk Quality Workshop with Gary Anderson

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Monday, April 25th
9:00am to 5:00pm
Governor’s Restaurant Capitol Room
Waterville, Maine
Fee: (includes all materials and a buffet lunch)
$50 for 2016 Guild Members
$75 for non-members (includes 2016 Guild membership)

The Maine Cheese Guild will sponsor a workshop focused on helping small dairies create the best possible milk for their own use, and/or for sale to the growing number of Maine cheese makers. Gary Anderson, Maine’s long-time dairy agent at Cooperative Extension, will cover these topics:

  • What do we mean when we say “milk quality”
  • Maine resources
  • Milk components and characteristics
  • Milk quality of different dairy animals and breeds
  • Quality variation dependent on the end use of milk (fluid, cheese, yogurt, etc.)
  • Animal health
  • Good decisions during the milking process
  • Comparison of milking systems, the challenges and benefits of each
  • Sanitation process and tools
  • The challenges of the organic dairy
  • Proper milk storage, affects on quality
  • Proper milk transport
  • On-farm testing options for dairies
  • Questions, individual troubleshooting

To sign up please send the full workshop fee with your name, phone number, and email address to:

Maine Cheese Guild
c/o Mary Belding, Treasurer
250 Walker Mills Rd.
Harrison, Maine 04040

The Maine Cheese Guild needs to finalize the lunch count ahead of the workshop so we must receive your payment at least 1 week ahead of time to guarantee access to the buffet lunch.