August 26, 2012

When we finally received the second shipment of cheese from Jasper Hill, we were a bit disapointed to discover they were not as generous as they’d been the first time. We are embarassed to admit that we didn’t notice the name “Alpha Tolman” on the stickers, so when asked “What do you think of the name?” we weren’t sure what to write. Thanks to Anne who was the first to blog about her Round 2 experience, we were informed of the name. As we wrote on the feedback form, we don’t really get from whence came this name—it doesn’t make us think of Vermont nor Alpine nor even cheese for that matter! So we’re not sure how successful it is as a name. [After looking at some of the other blog posts we understand it’s named after an obscure Vermonter with no clear connection to the cheese. Perhaps Beta Tolman would have been better for this round?]

The North American Jersey Cattle Association, which represents the interests of all things to do with this handsome breed of dairy cow, held its annual conference and cheese competition last week.

The event, based at the spectacular (picture Indoor African theme park) location of the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, saw a healthy attendance together with well over seventy entries in the cheese competition.

Each entry was judged individually by three teams of judges comprising Jane Cisler of Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. Paris Knox of W.D. Hoard’s and Sons, Dr. Bill Wendorff, Gina Mode and Marianne Smukowski all from the Center for Dairy Research and myself.

According to Josh Kramer, "If there are two things that I love, they are comics and cheese."

"This summer I discovered that a cheese I had been selling for years, Tarentaise, is made only twenty-five minutes from where I live now in Vermont. I went there recently, just as the leaves were turning, and was blown away by the beauty of the place...."