Tag Archives: natural rind

Workshops 2013: Magical Microbiolgical Mystery Tour

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This is a lecture
May 6 (Monday), 2013 from 11am to 3pm
Location: Pineland Farms Creamery, New Gloucester, ME

DIRECTIONS (link to PDF document):
http://www.pinelandfarms.org/pdf/Pineland-Farms-Campus-Map.pdf

Building # 19 on the map.

Have you ever wondered what turns a bland lump of salty curd into the amazing diversity of flavors, aromas, and appearances exhibited by the hundreds (if not thousands) of cheese varieties? More often than not these characteristics are initiated and controlled by organisms populating the surfaces of each cheese. Given that, how much do we know about what is happening on the cheese rind? Not much, it turns out. Cheesemakers *think* they know what happens when this mold is added, or a cheese is put into that cave, but microbiologists at Harvard’s FAS Center of Systems Biology have been testing these assumptions and finding that the cheese surface is a much more diverse environment than we could ever have imagined, involving some “usual suspects” as well as utterly alien influences.

This year the Guild has been able to schedule a member of the FAS lab, Benjamine Wolfe (who has worked with the Cheese Nun to figure out the secret lives of Geotrichum candidum) to visit Maine and update us on their research and findings as part of our May meeting to help us better understand our own aging situation, causes, and effects.

COST: This lecture is FREE to Maine Cheese Guild members. Non-members will pay $25 at the door, and their lecture fee will include membership in the Maine Cheese Guild.

Christmas Party 2010 — It’s Holiday Tomme again!

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Our annual Christmas Party was held on Monday, December 13th beginning at Noon where we cut into the Holiday Tommes that we all (!) made over Labor Day weekend.

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There were a good variety this year: a Goat/Guernsey hybrid from Little Falls Farm with a clear rind; two examples (one made with MM100 and one with Flor Danica) of Jersey cow milk from Monroe Cheese Studio; two examples of goat-cow-sheep mixed milk from Appleton Creamery (one by Caitlin, one by Jesse); and many examples of goat’s milk tomme with a B. linens rind from Kennebec Cheesery.

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All of them were very good with loads of variation on the classic Tomme de Savoie sticky/creamy texture, especially Jean’s cheeses from the Kennebec Cheesery where the B. linens really took over! This exploration of the amazing variety of cheeses possible even when working with the “same” recipe was eye-opening for the new and experienced cheese makers among us. Together with plenty of great food (what a MacAndCheese from Heidi!) and good cheer made this MCGCP another highlight of 2010.