Good evening to everyone. I am sitting here after I brought my wedge of Point Reyes’ Newest Blue to test at my company’s picnic. Why not bring it to a place where all of my colleagues have lived around the world working in development and are experienced in eating new and unusual foods? My name is Karen and while this might be my first time writing about cheese, I can’t help think that I have been in countless situations where I am trying things first before everyone else will try them after me.  As for cheese- I am just a plain “cheesie.”  I call myself that because I start to sound cheesy when I describe some of the delicious stinky ones in the world that I’ve tried and I love them.

As a Brit living in the US and with July 4th fast approaching, historical dates are on my mind. So, last night I decided to refresh my memory about some of these pivotal moments in Anglo-American relations and the repercussions surrounding these events. For instance, how interesting, that Americans decided to symbolically boycott English tea, thereby giving rise to the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

     As one of the "amateur" cheese tasters for "Birth of a Cheese," my first reaction to the unmarked package was "Wow, now this is a serious cheese!"  I immediately had to open the box and try it, then and there.  But, I felt like I was cheating a little bit so I nibbled the very end and put the cheese back in the icebox so I could ponder my first experience.  But low and behold, I kept sneaking back- I cut off the very end, let it sit and took a taste.  Well, then I HAD to try some of the middle...and then I HAD to make sure that I cut it straight and folded the foil just right.  From side to side, I loved the different nuances.  The bold flavor near the edges felt completely different than the really creamy middle- but each bite delicious.  When I first tried the cheese, I did not have the patience to let it warm to room temp and I thought it was good.  But once I let it sit and warm I realized just how great it is; thi

July, and the year tips into high summer, furious growth limited by dry weather and plants seeding.  Animals and plants have that well fed look – house martens wheel around the house, giving us freedom from hornets coming in in the evening –  do these tiny birds take those huge insects?  I drove back from talking to the Exmoor Women Farming Group across Exmoor, expecting to see wildlife along the way – not much – as soon as I got onto our farm, I saw fallow deer, a fat badger, and two roly-poly fox cubs.  Squirrels are eating my strawberries; last year I was getting a colander a day, this year just a handful.  I’ve got electrified chicken wire and two nets around them, and they are jumping the wire and breaking the net.  Next is to completely encase the strawberries in a cage of chicken wire.  Too much wildlife!