Unique New Cheese a ME/NY Collaboration

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Chef and sustainable food advocate Dan Barber has some very interesting ideas when it comes to sustainable food practices, especially as they relate to our culinary industry and restaurant diners. One of his big projects revolves around a farm-based restaurant in Pocantico Hills, NY, although his career began with his family’s farm and attempts to help return it to productivity and profitability.

In Barber’s quest to make sure his restaurants don’t waste a single bit of the food that is grown for them, he has worked to find productive uses for the bones of the animals that are slaughtered and butchered to provide the meat for some of their dishes. Initially they have been turned into charcoal that is used to fire ovens and grills for cooking, and now he is taking that idea one step further by using the very fine ash that is produced from the bone charcoal and having it added to a traditionally aged goat boule that will then be served in the restaurant.

This new cheese is called “Bone Char Pearl” and the mixed milk (goat and cow) boule itself is being produced by Maine’s Seal Cove Farm, then aged by Crown Finish Caves in New York City. In addition to being served at the Blue Hills restaurants it can also be purchased from Saxelby Cheesemongers in New York City.

New Maine Cheese Gets Nat’l Pub

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A new Maine cheese from a new Maine cheesemaker — Josh Pond — has gotten a prominent mention in the New York Times food section today. Josh Pond in Whiting began as a blueberry farm, as branched out into other blueberry products (their preserves are also featured in the same article) and also has a small goat herd that provides milk to make “small batches of artisanal raw-milk cheeses.” They’ve now also begun making a cows milk cheese using milk from Tide Mill Farm to make their newest cheese — Beauregarde — “a firm, smooth tomme-style cheese with a blue-gray rind, a fruity aroma and a full-bodied, slightly tangy flavor.”

REGULATORY-NEWS

LD 725 Signed By Maine’s Governor

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Despite the Guild’s — and many other dairy interests — public testimony against LD 725 An Act To Recognize Local Control Regarding Food Systems, the Governor signed a modified version into law on June 16th. It asserts the right of municipalities to regulate “food systems” within their municipal boundaries, but also specifies that food “intended for wholesale or retail distribution outside of the municipality” must still be regulated by State rules.

However, this will allow the legal sale of unlicensed cheese and dairy products at local farmers markets (depending on the market’s own rules regarding their vendor’s licensing requirements) as well as food retailers. It may be obvious to point out that this also means that non-residents of these municipalities that have deregulated food production can travel to those markets to purchase un-regulated food. It is also not clear how fully customers will be notified about items that are not produced under State regulations, and how well a consumer will have access to and be able to grasp the municipal regulations (or lack of) which are likely to differ in each town.

Linked here is the Guild’s public testimony given at the Ag Committee’s hearing on LD 725.