Tough choices as usual!

We didn't give you all a lot of time to dream up fresh rhymes for this year's contest (just a week or so), but we still saw an outpouring of casienated love.

Poems tended strongly towards the sweet (who win Briar Rose Creamery's goat cheese and chocolate truffles) with fewer works addressing the spicy (who win a selection of Virginia Chutney Co.'s tasty cheese lubricants). The field also tilted heavily towards submitter Lisa, who crushed the competition with sheer volume.

The Winners

♥ A top pick from our lovelorn staff was Jaclyn Stevenson's travelog in free verse, with our expatriot "foreign girl" falling for the charms of an open-air market. Sweet is the word.

The response to our V-day contest has been tremendous: thanks to everyone who sent in their verse. We've read the entries, and it was a tough choice selecting the winners of the Capriole Farmstead Bourbon Chocolate Hearts.

Limericks dominated the field: Kira Jefferson's cheese mite ditty recalled John Donne's classic "The Flea", while bridgette submitted an autobiographical verse which somehow seems universal.

In honor of V-day, we are holding a contest for the best cheese-related love poetry in America.

Use any meter or verse you wish—sonnet or limerick or free-verse, and employ any muse, be it a fair lad, lass, monger, or succulent cheese—but your masterpiece must include both l'amour and le fromage.

Prizes will be awarded to the three best versifiers: a trio of Bourbon Chocolate Hearts ♥ ♥ ♥ from Capriole Farmstead Goat Cheeses.

For my blog post this time around I was debating either cheese themed super bowl fare (Wisconsin being a cheese mecca and all) or cheese on Valentines Day. Although I am perhaps quick to the punch for Valentines Day, I am not much of a football guy; I have no bias towards any particular team or any cheese producing state for that matter. I hope my masculinity will not be jeopardized.

Everyone associates Valentine’s Day with chocolate but-- what about cheese?!? I like the idea of selecting 3-4 cheeses for you and your valentine to enjoy before, after or even as an alternative to a reservation at that ‘fancy pants’ restaurant. Do a little homework. Pick a few unique and contrasting cheeses with the help of your local cheese monger to wow your taste buds (and your date, of course). Even go as far as reading