by Lassa Skinner

There's a lot of new and interesting cheesemakers in Oregon, and there's no better place to meet and greet them and taste their handiwork than the Oregon Cheese Festival, which just celebrated its 9th anniversary on Saturday, March 16, 2013, which is put on by the Oregon Cheese Guild and Rogue Creamery. 

Last weekend, I had the chance to volunteer at the California Artisan Cheese Guild booth at the California Artisan Cheese Festival’s Sunday Marketplace! This was actually my first. I had only been to the Oregon Artisan Cheese Festival before that. Cheese events had been going on throughout the week, such as facility visits and seminars, but I could only pull myself away from work on Sunday. My shift began bright and early that morning. It had been pouring rain for the past few days, and fellow festivalgoers were wary about the weather. The marketplace was, after all, taking place under a massive tent on the Petaluma Sheraton’s parking lot. Luckily, the sky cleared up just in time.

Still reeling from the amazing turnout and incredible beers and cheeses for our first-ever pairing event in Cleveland. The best of the Midwest showed up with their curds and brews and showed 200 guests a very good time. Congenial darkness meant some grainy pics, but what turnout.

Kate writes from the road:

"I'm visiting the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh with the ACS board. Calvander by Chapel Hill Creamery won first place!"

Full results of the competition will be posted here soon!

Just a sampling of the folks (cheesemakers and fans) who showed up at the recent Terroir Exchange event down in Napa. Held at Taste at Oxbow, it brought together a dozen or so American and French cheeses and cheesemakers. You don't often have this much concentrated cheese-power in one room!