Yes! We agree Stargate SG-1! Gjetost is wickedly tasty. This Norwegian goat's cheese has been on all our minds lately with two pieces in our Spring 2012 issue - "Norse Discovery" and "Grandmother's Choice" - featuring this caramel-y, brick of goodness and a recent blog post from Susanna also featuring this cheese.

Great article by Pete Wells about Craig Claiborne, the New York Times' first restaurant critic who pretty nigh invented the job. As is noted in the article, Claiborne created the seed that grew into the modern-day "foodie," reviewing restaurants based on the food above all, and skipping the well-worn approach of only visiting the poshest spots:

Claiborne observed everything when he was reviewing, but ultimately he judged restaurants by what came out of the kitchen. As this idea caught on, it became harder to confuse the country’s best restaurants with the ones that were merely favored by the aristocracy. A different hierarchy in dining, ordered by creativity and excellence in cuisine, was slowly taking shape under the guidance of a new aristocracy: an aristocracy of taste. Today, we call members of this aristocracy “foodies.”

Gordon Edgar doesn't like the word "artisan" and after reading his reasoning, you may find that you don't like the word either. Check it out, it's a great post:

In the natural foods world, many small companies became hugely successful creating products in opposition to the processed foods that dominate U.S. supermarkets. Now, of course, many of those companies are owned by the huge corporations* that also make that processed food. Also, increasingly the “artisan” American cheese companies that helped bring us the cheese revolution of the last twenty years are being bought by larger European companies.**

Attention all design buffs! Craft beer cans are the new venue to sport your talents. Check out this year's winners of the "Canny" Awards and keep your eyes peeled for more craft beer tidbits in our summer issue!

Top prize, Craft Can of the Year, went to Bitter American Extra Pale Ale by 21st Amendment Brewery, with second place going to The Corruption IPA by DC Brau and third place to Johnny’s America IPA by Moab Brewery.

The other awards, broken into seven categories including "Best Shelf Presence" and "Best Use of Color," were presented at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego, Calif. between May 2 and 5. Winners were selected from quite a large pool -- 231 entries from 83 craft breweries.

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Here are some familiar cat antics, but we love how the baby goat leaps and bounds to keep up with his new wily friend.

View the video here.

As a cheese writer, consultant to Mexican cheesemakers, and international cheese educator, Carlos Yescas knows cheese inside and out. He may even be deemed a cheese god to those who religiously read his blog, Lactography. Carlos' day to day work, Mexican heritage and culture may give him an affinity for Mexican Cheese, but he's really a lover of cheeses of all nations. Needless to say, we are fascinated by his knowledge and experiences with cheeses from all over the world, which is why Alexandra Howard jumped at the opportunity to sit down with him and ask a few questions.

During all of your travels, have you come across any really unusual ways to eat or prepare cheese?

The winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup were announced on May 5 in Boulder, Colorado. The competition, also called "the Olympics of Beer," was hosted by the Brewers Association.

Brewers from around the world received awards from an elite international panel of judges in the 2012 Brewers Association World Beer Cup. The ninth bi-annual competition boasted the strongest field of entrants on record, with 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers in 95 beer style categories. A 17.7 percent increase over 2010, the entries were eligible for gold, silver and bronze awards in their respective categories. Judges presented a total of 284 awards.

Read the full press release here.

Karen Lindbo and George Redick of Oak Knoll Farm in Windsor, Vermont, got into the dairy business 24 years ago and now own the largest goat diary in Vermont. While it takes 10 goats to produce the same amount of milk as one holstein cow, goat dairy offers a more stable pricing structure.

Read the full story here.

Kathleen Squires of The Wall Street Journal takes us on a 105-mile on the Mont Blanc trail through Italy, France, and Switzerland. The trail winds its way through ice-capped mountains and scenic valleys, all the while highlighting some of the world's best cheeses at warming huts and hostels along the way.

We encountered fontina all along the Italian route. In Courmayeur, it was stuffed with ground walnuts into sunflower-shaped pasta topped with cream sauce. In Aosta, its fruitiness emerged when it was folded into a crespelle with ham. When we crossed into Switzerland around day nine, reblochon took the spotlight—in the town of La Fouly, for instance, in a thick tartiflette, wrapping potatoes and cream in an oozy embrace.

French farmers, who typically vote to the right, voice concern over the frontrunning candidates in the current election. Many say they will vote for Nicolas Sarkozy, but say he pales in comparison to his predecessor Jacques Chirac who had a strong record of supporting farmers and farming issues at the national and international level.

"I don't think either is a very strong candidate," says Rachel. "Neither has the stature, the standing, of a Pompidou, a De Gaulle, even a Mitterrand. And their programmes aren't clear; really short on detail. We did look seriously at the other candidates, but there's always something: that idea of Marine Le Pen's and the Front National to pull France out of the EU, return to the franc, for example. Completely ridiculous; just not credible."

Read the full story here.