This August 7-9, prepare yourself for a cheesy musical odyssey the likes of which you’ll be jazzed to hear about—culture: the word on cheese is partnering with Napa Valley winery Long Meadow Ranch to bring you Cheese Lands, your one-stop shop for cheesy treats at this year’s Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park! Each week until the event itself, we’ll dive deep into the six cheese and charcuterie plates we’ll have for sale; take a look at our main page for the full menu.
(An earlier version of this post noted we were offering the Salted Watermelon Jelly; because of supply-chain issues, we are switching over to the equally delicious Smokin’ Padrón Conserve)
One of the many reasons why cheese is exceptional is food camaraderie. Through pairings, we inevitably discover other worthy foods at their best. Cheese likes good company, and culture‘s Outside Lands cheese plates exhibit that in full. This week, we’re take a closer look at a particularly awesome item from our cheese plates—Friend in Cheese’s Smokin’ Padrón Conserve.
In 2009, Tabitha Stroup decided to start a business selling her delicious jams. Tabitha’s Appropriate Jams was so successful that in 2011 she created Friends In Cheeses Jam Company. This is great news for us, since now we get to choose between an immense variety of flavors such as Forbidden Fruit Marmalade and Pisco Pear Butter to complement our favorite cheeses. For Cheese Lands, we’re featuring Friend in Cheeses’s brand-new, all-around pairing champ: Smokin’ Padrón Conserve! Smoked peppers (originally hailing from Galicia in northwestern Spain) are blended with orange, lemon, and grapefruit for a rockin’ spread that goes well with most any cheese under the sun.
Maybe the best part about bringing Friend in Cheese aboard is their jam is Drought Responsible. These blue labels (featured in The Wall Street Journal!) indicate that the fruits or veggies are drought tolerant or dry-farmed—meaning the produce draws all of its moisture from the soil and takes a pass on the additional sprinkling. It’s an admirable display of awareness toward the severe drought in California, and a wonderful example to set for producers and consumers alike.
Also, Tabitha has an adorable pet pig, so you should probably check out her Instagram feed:
There ARE moments when this just has to be it..
A photo posted by Tabitha (@friendincheesesjamco) on
Robbie Herbst
Robbie Herbst is a summer editorial intern and an undergrad at Dartmouth College, where he enjoys access to the unimaginably quaint cheese-makers of the upper valley. When he isn’t writing or playing violin, he likes to take bricks of Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar on long hikes through the White Mountains.
