My favorite thing about Wisconsin is all the cheese crap everywhere. It’s like suddenly everyone can suddenly see what's going on in my head. Despite the disastrous “World’s Largest Cheese Box” that I visited a few years ago, I have forgiven the state of Wisconsin. I just refuse to drive miles out of my way for the attractions anymore ( Read more... )

Finally, my favorite new (to me) cheeses that I tasted at this year’s American Cheese Society conference… remember these aren’t necessarily my all time favorite American cheeses, just ones that either I hadn’t tried before or that were much better this year then ever before ( Read more... )

Ok, let’s finish off this American Cheese Society conference. Between being sick then crazy busy at work this has dragged out too long.

First off, I wanna say hey to two new (to me) cheesy LJers. nahmo and buttonlass. In the ‘80s Nahmo used to tag along with his dad to the store I work at when his dad delivered tofu. Small world! He’s a cheese seller in ( Read more... )

Because of the travel time and expense of the American Cheese Society conference being held in Chicago, a lot of cheese folks I know didn’t get to make it this year. One, Dee Harley of Harley Farms, asked me to pick up any awards she might win. I agreed, not knowing that the ceremony this year was going to be held in an actual theater and that ( Read more... )

I spent a lot of time at the American Cheese Society conference stressed out about the panel I was moderating. I was stressed for a few reasons. 1. I proposed my panel and organized it 2. As I confessed a few weeks ago, public speaking scares me and 3. Right before we left town I got an e-mail saying 175 people had already pre-registered for ( Read more... )

I made some concessions to the fact that the ACS conference is large now. With around 800 attendees, the sessions are much more lecture-based and even if one is able to ask a question there’s no time to discuss the answer. Therefore, I only go to subjects that are over me head or that I do not get stomach pains from attending because I want to ( Read more... )

My favorite part of the conference? Going out to dinner* with a few folks including a local (Bay Area) cheesemaker. The restaurant had family style seating and we were seated next to a local chef. After claiming he could say “I love cheese” in any language, he started talking about the cheese plate they serve. He bragged about how he only ( Read more... )

I can tell I’ve been under a lot of stress lately because I’ve been doing some things I wouldn’t ordinarily do. For example, upon arriving at the airport last week, I discovered that I booked our ticket to Chicago a day early ( Read more... )

I won't have time to write about the American Cheese Society Conference until next week, so here's a teaser. I'm thinking this should be my author photo for the book:


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