Workshop

Dairy Sanitation Workshop June 1st

University of Maine Cooperative Extension has announced that they will present a Dairy Sanitation Workshop on Monday, June 1st at the University of Maine Orono campus in the Buchanan Alumni Hall, McIntire Room. The Maine Cheese Guild will co-sponsor the event, and Guild members will receive a discount on the workshop fee.

Guild members will get a discount on the registration fee — here is the link to register.

Registration opens at 8:15am and the sessions begin at 9am. This will be an all-day workshop with a break for lunch (included in the workshop fee). There will be a limit of 50 people they can accommodate so it is advised that you register as soon as possible to make sure there is room for you at the workshop.

This workshop will also include the latest update on the upcoming implementation of the federal Food Safety and Modernization Act which will completely overhaul food safety compliance across the country beginning October 2015. (The Guild has posted updates on this periodically but we expect things to change right up through the implementation.)

Maine Cheese Guild

Workshop: The Small-Scale Cheese Business April 5-6, 2015

The Maine Cheese Guild announces a two day workshop with Gianaclis Caldwell —

The Small-Scale Cheese Business
A Guide to Running a Successful Farmstead Creamery

–based on her book by the same name. It will be two day-long workshops and will take place on SUNDAY and MONDAY, April 5th and 6th.

The site is still TBD, but is likely to be in the Augusta area.

(Click here for the full workshop description)

The fee for this two-day workshop will be:
–$100 per Guild member
–$300 per non-member, with Guild members receiving preference if the class limit is reached.

To reserve your spot send your name, business name (if applicable), and an email address where you want the confirmation information sent with the FULL AMOUNT of the fee by check or money-order (payable to “Maine Cheese Guild”) to:

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

Caldwell Workshops October 25-26th 2014

Gianaclis Caldwell will be in Maine for the American Dairy Goat Association convention, this year being held in Portland, Maine during the week of October 20th. She will be leading sessions during the conference on the basics of cheese making for the ADGA members who attend. As a result, the Maine Cheese Guild has arranged for author and cheesemaker Caldwell to also teach 2 advanced one-day workshops in Rockland at the State of Maine Cheese Co.:

  • Pasta Filata and other Italian style cheeses will be explored on Saturday, October 25th. This style, literally “spun paste” in Italian, is responsible for cheeses such as Mozzerella, Provolone, Caciocavallo, and Scamorza, and it represents a very different process from the typical process of simply draining curds into a solid form for serving or aging.
  • Affinage (“Refinement” in French) and the art of aging cheeses of all types will be the subject of her workshop on Sunday, October 26th. Caldwell will speak about techniques from vat to mold to cave (and mold!) for successfully escorting bland lumps of curds into a sophisticated assortment of flavors and textures that are only possible through Affinage.

SITE: State of Maine Cheese Co., Rockport

FEE: $100 for Guild Members, $125 for non-members (includes a Guild membership) for EACH day (Both classes are therefore $200 for members and $250 for non-members). Make sure you specify which day you are signing up for if it’s only one. Registration will be set when deposits are received. Deposits will be refunded for cancellations up to a week before the class begins, after which they are not refundable. If there are more registrations than space available, later registrations will be notified and a waiting list will be started — deposits will be returned for those on the waiting list who cannot be accommodated.

To reserve a space, send a $50 deposit per class (with a note indicate the class you wish to attend; the balance is due when you arrive) to:

Maine Cheese Guild
c/o Mark Whitney, Treasurer
Pineland Farms Creamery
92 Creamery Lane
New Gloucester, ME 04260

About Gianaclis Caldwell:
Gianaclis Caldwell grew up on a small family farm in Oregon, where she milked cows, ran a dairy cow 4-H club, and learned to raise organic produce and meat. In 2005, Gianaclis returned to the property with her husband and their two daughters where they now operate Pholia Farm, an off-grid, raw milk cheese dairy.

Gianaclis’s aged, raw milk cheeses have been recognized and applauded by America’s foremost authorities on cheese. Pholia Farm cheeses have been included in many major books on artisan cheese, the latest being Max McCalman’s Mastering Cheese, in which her Elk Mountain cheese is included in a short list of “rock stars of the 21st century.” Her Hillis Peak cheese was the centerfold cheese in the winter 2010 issue of Culture Magazine. She was one of the spotlighted cheesemakers in a recent publication, Cheesemaking, by Hobby Farms magazine for their Popular Kitchen Series. She has been teaching all levels of cheesemaking for years, as well as speaking and teaching about the business of farmstead cheese, both at Pholia Farm and other venues, including the American Dairy Goat Association annual convention, the American Cheese Society Conference, and theMother Earth Newsfairs.

Caldwell is the author of The Small-Scale Dairy, a guide to the production of high quality, farm fresh milk, The Small-Scale Cheese Business, a guide to producing and selling artisan cheese, and Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking, which won a 2013 Foreword Book of the Year Award in Reference and was an International Association of Culinary Professionals finalist. Her photographs and writing appear regularly in numerous publications, including Culture Magazine.