Michael Sanders at the New York Times has the story on mead, and its growing popularity and reputation. It's not only for the gods anymore:

Put a glass of white wine to your nose, and, with the right winemaker and the right grapes, floral notes rise up. With a glass of mead, it is as if you were holding the flowers themselves.

“One bottle of mead is made from a half-pound of honey,” said Mark Beran of Medovina Meadery in Niwot, Colo. “That’s the nectar of one million flowers.”

Mr. Beran, who started as a beekeeper, makes 250 cases of mead each year from the honey of his own hives. “The honeybee is the mother of the fermented beverage industry,” he insisted.

For centuries, people around the world have taken this most convenient and natural sweetener, added water and let yeast from the open air change sugar to alcohol and, presto, booze.

In honor of Valentine's Day, culture is celebrating chocolate and cheese with the help of Taza Chocolate in Somerville, Mass. and Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, Mass. Combining their powers of production and taste, they came up with these wonderful cheese and chocolate pairing suggestions to share with all of us:

Whole Foods blogger Melissa Traverse paid a visit to Jasper Hill Farms, and came away with a good story:

Jasper Hill Farms in Greensboro, Vermont is making some of the finest cheese available, and they produce a number of truly unique and delicious cheeses sold at many of our stores, including Harbison, Bayley Hazen Blue, Landaff and Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. I spent an afternoon at the Jasper Hill creamery in upstate Vermont with Mateo Kehler, one of its two co-founding brothers, to learn what it is that makes their cheese so special.

Mark McClusky shows us how to make our own, far superior Velveeta using Comté, Wisconsin cheddar, and gouda. It's definitely not Kraft's recipe, and it sure tastes different, but it ends up looking almost exactly the same. It even has Velveeta's wonderful melting ability:

This episode of My Go-To Dish features Mark McClusky, special projects editor at Wired magazine and Wired.com. McClusky has reported on and learned about modernist cuisine from some of its most well-known pioneers. His DIY American cheese recipe uses a scientific approach to cooking. To take part in the experiment, see the recipe. And once you've made Mark's cheese, try it in a grilled cheese sandwich, like he uses it here:

Joe Satran at HuffPo Food, has the story on Murray's new Valentine's Day cheese, Love at Mast. What makes this cheese so special? It's got chocolate in it, for one:

The words "chocolate" and "cheese" are two of the best uses ever for the letters "ch." And as girls' best friends go, they're much more affordable than diamonds. They've had brief encounters with one another in the past, in chocolate cheese fudge from Wisconsin and chocolate cheesecakes from bakers around the world. But this Valentine's Day, for the first time, the two are getting married in tiny wheels of chocolate-infused cheese.

Cheese shop mystery series writer Avery Aames loves cheese, and recently has discovered just how many other people share her love. Now she's fully immersed, and her latest novel Clobbered by Camembert is just hitting the shelves. Oh and another thing: she reads culture!

A few months ago, I wrote “Life is great; cheese makes it better” in one of my newsletters. Lo and behold, suddenly people are tweeting the saying and posting it on websites. Why did I write it? For a variety of reasons.

I love cheese. I adore the flavors, the aromas, the texture, and the variety of choices. Over the past year, I have tasted at least two hundred cheeses. There are thousands more, worldwide, with enticing names like Honeybee Goat Gouda, Bayley Hazen Blue, Tuscan Tartuffo, and Devil’s Gulch. Don’t those names make you curious? Do they make your mouth water?

Before writing A Cheese Shop Mystery series, I didn’t know how much I loved cheese.

Max McCalman has some important things to say in response to the implication that cheese is responsible for our nation's obesity problem, and he is making sure everyone knows:

The causes of obesity are not linked to the effects of consumption of dairy products. Some of the larger culprits in this weight gain are not the types that most people suspect: whole milk and full-fat cheeses. Instead, a significant part of the blame rests with the low-fat and skim-milk dairy products, and their depleted weight-reducing qualities.

The Albany area Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has launched a graphic billboard campaign depicting grossly oversized abdomens and thighs, warning that cheese contributes to high obesity rates and poses health risks. The group has gone so far as to write the Albany school board asking the city to cut down on dairy products served in schools to help students reduce the risk of childhood obesity.

Lactalis American is beginning work on a new plant in Nampa, Idaho, this spring. Locals are looking forward to more jobs:

The 61,300-square-foot fresh mozzarella production plant, slated to be operating by the spring of 2013, will be built this year behind the existing Lactalis plant east of Nampa at the intersection of Franklin and Star roads.

Production of fresh mozzarella at the Canyon County plant will increase from 7 million pounds per year to 40 million pounds per year, said Pierre Lorieau, vice president and general counsel for Lactalis.

About 70 Treasure Valley residents will be hired to round out a staff of about 110, Bass said, adding that the new plant will be fully staffed by the spring of 2013.

Read more here

Some sobering news for the everyone who knew and loved Mandy Reed, as well as for her business, the Swaledale Cheese Company, in England. Best wishes to her family and friends:

Mandy Reed, 47, was the director of The Swaledale Cheese Company, based in Richmond, North Yorkshire, and lived in nearby Scorton with her daughter, Louise.

Mrs Reed was discovered in the garden of the property next to her own in Grammar School Court at 5pm on Sunday after police were alerted to her disappearance at 4.35pm.

The cause of her death was still unknown last night.

She was last seen by her son, Sam Reed, when she got into a red Skoda Octavia taxi after a night out on Saturday night and would have arrived home between 10.30pm and 11pm.

Read the full article here

Good news for the Idaho economy: cheese giant Lactalis is expanding mozzarella manufacturing in their Nampa, Idaho plant. Via the Idaho Press-Tribune:

Lactalis American Group today announced plans to increase fresh mozzarella production at the Nampa facility, a move that will add about 70 jobs and increase the company's purchase of local and regional dairy.

Construction on the expanded fresh mozzarella plant will begin in March and is expected to last about 10 months.

Read the full story here.