Artisan cheesemakers roll into Petaluma
The California Artisan Cheese Festival just wrapped up a three day weekend of tours, seminars, and food tasting events, all centered around the West Coast artisan cheese industry. For anyone with a passion for artisan cheeses, this has become a must attend event, and from all the smiling faces, and bags full of goodies at Sunday’s Marketplace, it was clearly a huge success.
In its ninth year, the festival has grown in diversity and popularity. Although the list of cheeses, beers, ciders, and wines are limited to the western states, the event has gained national acclaim. The Festival aims to educate the public about craft cheese making, to support artisan cheesemakers, and last but not least, to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of those cheesemakers’ labor. The Festival achieves these goals through farm tours, seminars, and lots and lots of cheese pairings and tastings.
Artisan vs. Farmstead
Before I dove headfirst into three days of creamy indulgence, I wanted to better understand some of the terminology. “Artisan” and “farmstead” are not uncommon around Petaluma, but for a guy who eats lots of cheese, surprisingly I did not know what they meant. Luckily, there is no shortage of knowledgeable volunteers at the festival and so I learned quickly. Both types of cheese can be made from any kind of milk but “artisan” is about how the cheese is made, while “farmstead” is about where the milk comes from. Artisan cheese is produced in small batches, with particular attention paid to traditional cheese making methods, leaving the mechanization to the Krafts of the world. Farmstead cheese is made with milk sourced directly from the cheesemaker’s cows, goats, sheep, and exotics, like donkeys and camels. The milk cannot be sourced from beyond the cheesemaker’s personal herd, flock … drove or caravan. Finally, a “cheesemonger” is someone who sells cheese.
Friday: Farm Tours
The Festival opened on Friday morning with a herd of buses from Pure Luxury Transportation whisking willing guests into the west Petaluma countryside. Cowgirl Creamery, Marin French Cheese and Point Reyes Farmstead topped the list of internationally known farms on the tour schedules. Many of the other farms may not be well know outside the cheese world, but they are household names to those of us lucky enough to live around Petaluma. These powerhouses included Achadinha Cheese, Barinaga Ranch, Gypsy Cheese, Haverton Hill Creamery, Nicasio Valley Cheese, Pug’s Leap, Two Rock Valley Goat Cheese and Valley Ford Cheese. But if those names don’t necessarily ring a bell, the farmers’ surnames certainly will. If you grew up here, or have thumbed through a local phone book recently, you recognize names such as Giacomini, Lafranchi, and Pacheco.
I was lucky enough to join Farm Tour A - “Marin County Milk Magic.” Our handler was a very friendly and knowledgeable home cheesemaker named Al, who hails from the Peninsula. He graciously educated those of us with no cheesemaking knowledge, while discussing more intricate topics with those who may have given it a try on their own at some point. After a picturesque drive along pastoral D Street/Red Hill Road/Point Reyes Petaluma Road (or whatever else you might call it) we stopped at Nicasio Valley Cheese, run by the Lafranchi family. We learned about their Swiss ancestry, century of dairy work, and recent transition to cheese making.
After a whole lot of cheese tasting, we continued to Tomales Bay, where our next stop was at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, run by the Giacomini sisters. I have a soft spot for this farm because they converted me to blue cheese years ago when I inadvertently bit into a bacon burger topped with this moldy cheese. Luckily, it wasn’t just any blue cheese, but was Point Reyes’ blue. Instead of the normally pungent and crumbly blue I had avoided for most of my adult life, the Giacomini’s is more like blue and brie cheese combined. It is smoother and creamier and as far as I’m concerned, a bacon burger is no longer complete without it.
Point Reyes’ farm tour was captivating and informative, even to someone who grew up around ranches, but it was lunch, served in the infamous Fork dining room, that really took the (cheese) cake. Bravo TV’s “Top Chef Boston” contestant Melissa King incorporated the farm’s cheeses into a one-off, world-class meal. She even demonstrated how she made each dish and included all her recipes in our take-home materials.
The Giacomini family has created a slice of heaven on earth with their farm, their cheeses, and especially the sensory overload of visual and taste experiences one can expect when the doors to Fork are periodically opened to the public. If I only learned one thing from this weekend it is that I need to join their mailing list. (I’ve been advised by many that one must act quickly because events at Fork sell out immediately.)
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