The village of Roquefort, France is located on the southern tip of the high Massif Central plateau about 100 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, and it is built into the cliffs containing the caves that “invented” blue cheese. Natural air currents vent these caves (called “fleurines“) and carry the naturally occurring Penicillium roqueforti spores through them, as well as keep the caves at a constant temperature and humidity. As part of the AOC definition of “Roquefort” cheese, all cheeses with that name must spend at least two weeks in these caves. This means that 24 hours a day trailer trucks full of young cheese are brought to the caves while each cheese that has already been two weeks in the caves are loaded back onto the same trailers and taken away to cold storage for final aging. Below are some pictures of the village, as well as of an antique cheese piercing machine that looks more like a medieval torture device (which is apt because long ago the Catholic Church purged non-believers from this region through a reign of torture and terror).
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Pasture Walk July 10th
Balfour Farm, Webb Rd
Pittsfield, Maine
10:00 am to 2:00pm
Pasture Walk and On-farm Processing of Milk
Heather and Doug Donahue will open up their farm for a pasture walk on July 10 th
from 10-2 pm. Sponsored by the University of Maine Extension and the University
of New Hampshire, the pasture walk will feature presentations by Dr. Rachel
Gilker from the Vermont Pasture Network and Pasture Program at the University
of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Rachel will discuss estimating dry
matter yields and intakes in pastures and general grazing management, as well as
ideas around direct marketing of milk products. Measuring pasture intakes and
monitoring dairy cow diets are important parts of recordkeeping on organic dairy
farms.
Heather and Doug Donahue have been at Balfour Farm in Pittsfield for two years,
and quickly established their dairy. Originally shipping organic milk to a wholesale
market, they now direct market all their milk through a variety of farm products
they produce on the farm. Heather will be
discussing the rules and regulations process of selling dairy products and Dr. Gary
Anderson from the University of Maine will be on hand to talk about testing services
and learning opportunities for processors available through the University of Maine.
Additionally, the Donahue family is participating in a recently funded Organic
Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) project entitled “Assisting Organic
Producers to Meet the Demands of New and Emerging Milk Markets”. Dr. Andre
Brito from the University of New Hampshire will speak briefly about the project
and some of the goals we hope to achieve through the research. Amy Beliveau, a
recently graduated MS student from the University of New Hampshire, will present
her thesis work comparing the concentration of carotenes (precursors of Vit. A) in
cheese made from organic vs. conventional Jersey cows.
Lunch will be served to those participants who register before the event. To
register, please contact the University of Maine Extension office in Waldo County
at 1-800-278-1426 in Maine or 207-342-5971 outside of Maine. Participants
can also register on-line. For more information, please contact Rick Kersbergen at
Richard.Kersbergen@maine.edu Directions to the farm can be found at http://
www.balfourfarmdairy.com/visit.html This pasture walk is funded by the USDA-
NIFA-OREI planning grant # 2010-01932.
Guild Input Into New Agriculture Conservation and Forestry Dept.
Broadly speaking the legislature has decided to merge the Maine Department of Agriculture with the Maine Department of Conservation. They have also transferred several functions from the State Planning Office to this new “super” department among other smaller moves across state governement.
As these government entities contemplate how to re-organize under this single new entity they are holding public meetings across the state to hear from organizations and individuals who have an interest in this new department, and who want to have input on how it is finally pieced together.
I attended a meeting held on June 26th in Augusta, and following are the recommendation I made on behalf of the Maine Cheese Guild to Commissioners Whitcomb (Ag) and Beardsley (Conservation).