Turns out beer and cheese aren't just delicious, they're also energy sources for a hospital in Wisconsin. Needless to say, the locals are overjoyed. What better motivation to drink beer and eat cheese, than powering a hospital?

Beer and cheese, while delicious, both slough off a lot of gas while they’re being made. (Not to mention after they’re consumed.) The hospital system has been sourcing biogas from a local brewery and from a dairy farm that makes mascarpone and fresh mozzarella cheese. And recently the system started getting gas from a La Crosse landfill, as well.

Hospital CEO Jeff Thompson, who pioneered the shift to biogas, isn’t some weird pickler guy, though. Energy independence makes sense for the environment, but it also makes financial sense for the hospital, which is saving gobs of money.

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It's not every day a cheesemaker decides to throw open their doors and develop a cheese in public, but that's exactly what Jasper Hill Farms is doing with our 2012 Birth of a Cheese event. With a heady mix of amateurs and experienced cheese people across the country, making sure the feedback would be useful was a challenge. The first step? A questionnaire with guided instructions on cheese tasting.

Says Jasper Hill's Vince Razionale,

I wanted to encourage the tasters to step back and think about each facet of tasting: appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, and marketability - something we evaluate on each batch of each cheese we make and ripen. We do a lot of tasting around here, as you can imagine!

Not everything went as smoothly as hoped, though:

Pizza was originally created as a food to feed to the poor and the gourmet pizza trend in Italy is not sitting well with some makers who believe that pizza should remain as simple as the famed margherita pizza. Hence, pizza wars!

The fashion for ultra-pizzas has spread throughout Italy. But as Coccia is constantly being reminded, this is Naples, the home of the tomato and mozzarella margherita. Since opening in 2010, Coccia's restaurant, La Notizia, has whipped up an almighty row, provoking an army of growling traditionalists to voice their contempt for Coccia's daring combination of salt cod with mozzarella, his use of figs and pesto and his €25 truffle oil pizza. His innovative – some would say sacrilegious – approach has divided a city.

Read the full story here.

The last maple sap of the season doesn't make the best maple syrup, which typically comes out darker, heavier, with earthy undertones. Turns out it's good for something though - a maple sap brew that'll put hair on your chest! In the old days, farmers would gather the late season sap, which has a "leafy" taste, boil it down, throw in some yeast, hops, and perhaps a few raisins, then let it ferment in barrels in the cellar until it was ready to drink in July. A few local Vermont brewers are bringing back this tradition.

Sean Lawson heard about the maple sap beer a few years ago and started researching it. He came up with own version — brewing it in a more controlled environment than "ye olde cellar" — and has been doing it now for five years.

Read the full post here.

Northern Italy suffered a huge blow early Sunday morning, when a magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocked the region. Tragically, seven people were killed, and many historical buildings were demolished.

The BBC explores the process of fermentation in this radio food piece. Sandor Katz and Sheila Dillon offer their expertise on the subject, and discuss the human relationship with these microbes, many of which play a part in creating some of our favorite dairy treats!

Since ancient times humans have harnessed the power of microbes to preserve food and enhance its flavours. Rich and complex food cultures have developed that use this power in a process called fermentation - making pickles, breads, wines and much, much more.

Listen to the Full Story Here
Photo by Nathan Reading

Slow Food Madison, one of the oldest Slow Food Chapters in the country, held its annual meeting on May 20. Jeanne Carpenter of Cheese Underground reflects on what Slow Food truly means and how it has changed her life.

As a family, we were on our way to realizing what good food was, but we didn't yet have the resources to eat it full-time. Today, when I open my fridge and see an entire drawer of artisan cheeses made by hand from that same Driftless Region of which Piper remembers, I appreciate the good, clean and fair food I now enjoy on a regular basis.

Read the full blog post here.

On June 3rd Murray's Cheese Shop - of Greenwich Village fame - plans to open a new kiosk location at the entrance of the Fred Meyer Store in Portland, OR. There will be over 300 specialty items to choose from including plenty of West Coast cheeses.

They’re also expanding their American Artisan Cheese offerings to include California specialty cheeses from Cypress Grove (Humboldt Fog, Truffle Tremor and six additional CG favorites) and Pt. Reyes; In addition to the Maple Leaf cheeses reviewed earlier today, the shop will offer 6 Award-winning cheeses from Wisconsin’s Sartori Cheese including their Sarvecchio, the most decorated American Parmesan.

Read the full story here.

We heard yesterday that many wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano were casualties in Sunday's magnitude 6.0 earthquake that rocked northern Italy. Here's an update from The Huffington Post on the losses sustained:

In terms of economic impact, the artisanal cheese sector appears to be the hardest hit. At least 10 percent of Parmesan production has been impacted, according to early estimates by the Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium, which annually generates (EURO)1.2 million in production revenues and (EURO)1.9 billion in consumer sales.

In all, some 10 collective Parmesan aging warehouse and cheese production sites have sustained damage in the quake, affecting 300,000 wheels, half of which are estimated to be at least a partial loss.

Cubes of Comté get tossed with apples, chicken, toasted walnuts, rice and lemon vinaigrette for a mouthwatering but easy-to-make salad that is perfect for your next picnic or potluck.

In a small bowl, combine the smashed garlic clove with the lemon juice and let sit while mixing the rest of the ingredients.