Yesterday our Love with Food box arrived. I love getting them every month. It's a surprise and a present every month. And with each one I think about Lassa, who gave it to us as a Christmas gift.

Love with Food is a subscription service in the form of a box of unique and mostly new specialty food products (no perishables) - giving producers trying to break into distribution a chance to catch on virally, and hungry consumers the chance to discover them. Then, (and here's the Love with Food part) they turn around and donate a meal to a hungry child for every box sold.

I am stupendously pleased that NASFT has today announced they have changed their name to Specialty Food Association. It makes sense. I could never remember the acronym, or what it stood for. It's just simpler, sleeker, and more appropriate.

It also reflects the growing importance specialty food has in our diet and food conscience. "Sixty-six percent of US consumers purchase specialty foods {in 2012}, up from 59% in 2011." (Specialty Food Magazine, October 2012, Annual Report: Specialty Food Consumers, p.34.)

Welcome to the second installment of our Winter Cheese Plate Winners! Here’s where you’ll find five weeks of our winning foodie bloggers, sharing their personal spins on our Winter 2012 Cheese Plate! Our next guest post comes from Katherine Hysmith, a displaced Texan and grad student at Boston University’s Gastronomy program, recording her New England kitchen adventures at The Young Austinian. Check back next Wednesday for the third post in this series, from Leah McFadden, of Shootin The Bries!

Hey, we had a little snow last night...and today.

And so it begins: five weeks of our winning foodie bloggers, sharing their personal spins on our Winter 2012 Cheese Plate! Our inaugural guest post comes from pastry chef-turned cookbook author, Garrett McCord, of Vanilla Garlic. Check back next Wednesday for our second post in the series, from Katherine Hysmith -AKA- The Young Austinian.

This may not come as news to many of you, but even though the holidays are over… it’s still winter. Days are short, temperatures (here in Boston, anyway) are miserably cold, and it feels like everything in the CSA box is a root vegetable. On the other hand, sometimes all it takes to get you out of that mid-winter rut is a little fiesta… even if your birthday’s still six months away.

Enter: the culture Winter Cheese Plate!

In this blog series intern Kate E. interviews the staff here at culture: the word on cheese to give you an inside look at a day in the life of this goofy group of cheese-lovers and their work on the magazine you've come to love. Have specific questions for or about our staff? Be sure to send them to staff@culturecheesemag with the subject line, "Meet the Staff".

We know you’ve all been drooling over our Winter Cheese Plate… now we’re giving you the chance to taste it yourself!

WIN A CHEESE PLATE

We’re choosing five lucky bloggers to win a Cheese Plate Party with culture. How does it work? Each Cheese Plate Party blogger will host a party featuring our winter cheese plate, take photos and write about both the party and the plate, and have their blog post featured on our website. In addition, each winner will get to host a giveaway on their own blog.

Lots needs to be done to get the creamery project moving, but daily life seems to be getting in my way. Fortunately Seana and Dave are dedicating a lot of their time, and are making most of our progress!

We’re currently trying to obtain permits for plumbing, electrical, and water use. I actually thought this part of the process would go much quicker than it has, since the structure is sound and not too much needs to be done, relatively speaking. But permits take a lot of planning and negotiating. And you have to be willing to revise your plan and negotiate more. So while it’s a full-time job to get these things figured out and crossed off the to-do list, we go to our real jobs during the day, and work on permits in the hours between.

"I opened during the worst part of the recession," Laura Downey says with a chuckle as a coda. Such a statement of entrepreneurial horror isn't often followed with a gentle laugh, but Downey has earned that right. For her, the recession isn't an excuse for a failed business, but something that she has succeeded in spite of. She is the co-owner with Chris Palumbo of the thriving Fairfield Cheese Company in Fairfield, Connecticut, a shop bringing the best in artisan and locally produced cheeses to the Connecticut suburb.