Humboldt Fog

Kroger has great sales. Cheese that is approaching the sell by date is wrapped and marked way down. My parents cultured in me a sophisticated palate and as a result I am very familiar with and love fine cheeses. I can't afford them at the the non-sale price so I'm thrilled to find these little, marked down bundles!

There are many fine cheeses. I didn't know just how many until I watched Monty Python.



Now I can have fine cheese every week! This week I discovered Humboldt Fog. Interesting name! What's it all about?

From the artisan cheesemaker Cowgirl Creamery's website-

Cypress Grove pic

Humboldt Fog

Mary Keehn got started on the goat cheese trail in the 1970s when she decided to raise Alpine goats as a source of healthful milk for her children. Not too long after, Mary started receiving awards for her herd and became recognized as an expert in the field. Blessed with an excess of milk from fifty goats, Mary started making cheese in 1983.

Situated where the giant redwoods meet the Pacific Ocean in the rugged northernmost reaches of Humboldt County, California, Cypress Grove Creamery gets unique inspiration from the salt-etched voluminous fog that coolly rolls in nearly every day.

One of the most unique American goat cheeses out there, Humboldt Fog is Cypress Grove's signature cheese. Elegant and luscious, this three-week old cheese pays homage to classic French Morbier by running a thin line of grey vegetable ash through its creamy, white center. As Humboldt Fog ages, its subtle tanginess grows more pronounced and a runny edge of thick and delicious ooze begins to develop under the rind and drift to the center of the cheese. Its similarity to Humboldt County's morning fog is unmistakable and lovely to behold.

It's a pretty cheese,for sure. The line in the middle does remind me of fog and the cool, slate grey ocean. A fogline.
I'm so glad they're still inventing cheeses!

Forget financial armagedon, I wanna talk cheese!

This week's Wall Street volatility has been extremely weird. The Dow swinging up and down 400-500 points in a day, the nation's hugest financial institutions and companies dying before our eyes, Russia's stock market crashing, United Bank of Switzerland tanking...all compelling. I know it all affects me even if I don't have money markets and structured whatevers and fancy accounts. We all pay, especially because of the Fannie and Freddie bailout. Not to mention AIG bailout, which isn't even a bank.

All that aside, let's talk about cheese! Namely my love for cheese. I love exotic cheese. I have been blessed with an interested palate all my life, and even when I was little exotic cheese was served in my house. I grew up knowing what Edam and Gouda were. How wonderful.

My favorite is goat cheese. I fondly recall sultry dinners on sidewalks cafes of Paris with goat cheese salads or goat cheese appetizers. France seemed synonymous with cheese. You know, the simple things of life like French bread and fresh cheese and cool wine. Whole shops dedicated to cheese, my kind of city.

I recall another cheese incident that occurred as I was traveling on the Italian train from Florence to Rome. I met a European Union Dignitary, and she and I were discussing food (after having had a lively discussion about the new European Union, just formed). I said I liked cheese. She was highly amused and corrected me immediately.

"Che-eese?! Che-eese?! Formaggi? No. No!" She went on to say that one must always say the cheese's specific name. Mozzarella, Pecorino, etc., they each have a name and a specific role in an Italian meal. Good to know.

When the local gentleman's farm opened up in New Gloucester, Maine, it wasn't long before they started tapping locals and local products to produce, and happily, one of them was cheese. They opened a creamery and I went on a tour. The interior of the dairy by necessity was spotless and antiseptic, with gleaming large stainless steel vats, and men in white lab coats and paper nets on their hair. Not much to take a photo of, so I looked inside one of the vats and saw the cheese paddles. Snap! I love this pic. After the dairy got up and running they made great cheese and it won awards almost right away. I'm glad the folks of Gray and New Gloucester have access to locally produced dairy products as well as meat and veggies.

And here's Monty Python's ode to cheese in the famous "Cheese Shop Sketch"


So that's my cheese story and I'm stickin' to it!