Did you know that our catering chef Jocelyn is constantly adding new items to our prepared food repertoire? You may think that we're only about the signature chevre and the chicken salad. But that's not so. There are many, many excellent items being produced right here at the corner of 44th St and France Avenue. Just this past Saturday we woke up early to milk the cows and thought that it seemed like a great day to make ice cream, or vanilla custard or whatever people call it. So now in our freezer we have homemade vanilla bean frozen custard. As if that weren't enough Jocelyn decided to bake some cookies and make some nifty vanilla custard sandwiches.
If you gaze above all the vanilla custard wonder in the freezer you might notice that there is some pretty fancy macaroni and cheese. Not so fancy that the kids won't like, but good enough that you won't see the word "powdered" in the ingredients list. We're a cheese shop for crying out loud, since when does cheese come in powdered form? We have good cheese I like to think, and we're not afraid to use it our mac and cheese.
Then if you keep on looking up you'll see an assortment of take home appetizer bites that are great if you're rushing off to a party last minute or if you simply don't feel like cooking. And the best part is that all of the ingredients are recognizable, our food is made of actual, real food. Fancy that.
We may be opinionated in the cheese shop, but we're not judgmental. If you don't feel like cooking, that's fine, we'll offer you suggestions, but we won't think less of you.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Dirt Day
Our friends at Sunnyside garden are bringing our soil over tomorrow. That means we're very close to planting time. We've got twenty tubs that have been sitting in the cheese shop just waiting to be called into vegetable growing action. There will be pictures tomorrow of all the dirtiness.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Some New Cheeses in the Shop
Those of you have been by the cheese shop know that I am on a quest to bring in as many cheeses direct from the cheese-makers as I can. There are a couple of distinct advantages to bringing in cheese direct. First and foremost it means that I am receiving the cheese at its freshest. Sometimes when I call one of the farms they even have to go take a look and see what's ready. I know it hasn't been sitting in a supplier's fridge for however long potentially diminishing in quality. Also the cheese is usually coming by air freight so I know that is hasn't been on a slow boat from parts unknown or being mistreated by cheese pirates. Lastly, and I don't think this point should be underestimated, I am able to form a personal relationship with the farmer/cheese-maker. This means I can better promote their product and hopefully speak more intelligently about the product in my cheese case.
So there were a couple of new arrivals in the shop last week:
Oakvale Gouda
This is a raw cow's milk, farmstead cheese from London, Ohio. Oakvales's agricultural roots run deep in the central Ohio area, where they have been milking cows since 1853. Their milk is from 80 Holstein-Friesian cattle which means the milk is a higher fat and protein content than the average U.S. Holstein cow.
Their young Gouda is a rich, buttery cheese. It bares no resemblance to the mass produced, shrink wrapped Gouda that you might find in a grocery store. Their Goudas have won several awards at the American Cheese Society's annual convention.
Vermont Ayr
Another raw cow's milk cheese, this one is from the Crawford Family Farm in Whiting, VT. The cheese is named after the Ayrshire cow, whose milk is used in making this cheese. Crawford Family Farm
is a small, fourth generation dairy farm run by siblings Cindy, Jim and Sherry. They are maintaining a line of cattle started by their grandparents in the 1950s. Their parents, Bob and Bettelee, continually improved the Ayrshire herd and were named 1984 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year. The fifth generation (aged 4-24) all help with the cheese making, everything from renovating the barn for the cheese room to coming up with ideas for the label.
So there were a couple of new arrivals in the shop last week:
Oakvale Gouda
This is a raw cow's milk, farmstead cheese from London, Ohio. Oakvales's agricultural roots run deep in the central Ohio area, where they have been milking cows since 1853. Their milk is from 80 Holstein-Friesian cattle which means the milk is a higher fat and protein content than the average U.S. Holstein cow.
Their young Gouda is a rich, buttery cheese. It bares no resemblance to the mass produced, shrink wrapped Gouda that you might find in a grocery store. Their Goudas have won several awards at the American Cheese Society's annual convention.
Vermont Ayr
Another raw cow's milk cheese, this one is from the Crawford Family Farm in Whiting, VT. The cheese is named after the Ayrshire cow, whose milk is used in making this cheese. Crawford Family Farm
is a small, fourth generation dairy farm run by siblings Cindy, Jim and Sherry. They are maintaining a line of cattle started by their grandparents in the 1950s. Their parents, Bob and Bettelee, continually improved the Ayrshire herd and were named 1984 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year. The fifth generation (aged 4-24) all help with the cheese making, everything from renovating the barn for the cheese room to coming up with ideas for the label.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Special Delivery! Haz-Mat drum of Cheese
My week at the cheese shop began with a bit of a curve ball. I showed up on Tuesday morning and my resident cheese guardian angel from the wine shop (and personal wine consultant) Bill informed that a hazardous waste drum filled with cheese had arrived on Monday. Of course everyone is prone to exaggeration from time to time and so I assumed that Bill was joking and that perhaps one of the farms we order directly from has decided to ship in some sort of fancy plastic container.
Bill said he had put the cheese in the beer cooler and that we should follow him. Rick (owner of France 44) and I followed Bill to the beer cooler where we found, to everyone's surprise except for Bill, a hazardous waste drum. It looked something like, no, EXACTLY like this hazardous waste drum.
So many questions. Why? How? Why??? Okay, deep breath, we examined the salvage drum and there was a note written on top. It read something, no exactly, like this:
Strong odor? Okay, so now we were even more confused. Rick and I picked the thing up and carried it to the cheese shop. But what else was there to do but open the drum? Which is not as easy as you would think because they actually bolted the drum shut. After all, there was hazardous material inside. So we grabbed a wrench and twisted and twisted and finally popped open the drum...
First thing first. You will notice that there are no more pictures of this event. All will be clear as to why not.
I am sure most of you remember the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark". And if you remember that movie then you will most certainly remember the final scene of the movie when the Nazis open the lost ark of the covenant. Indiana Jones and Marianne are tied to a post while the Nazis open this extremely holy artifact. Of course they open it and all sorts of scary ghouls come flying out and disintegrate the screaming Nazis into nothingness.
That's kinda like what happened when we opened the drum (except without the Nazis). The smell, oh the smell. By the time we opened the thing a crowd of wine shop employees had gathered in the cheese store. And one of them exclaimed "I've smelled a rotting corpse before and that's what this thing smells like". The whole building here instantly filled up with the stench. But we couldn't just stop the procedure. We had to find the source.
Inside the drum was a large bag. We noticed that the bag was filled with a substance that we soon discerned was kitty litter. Then, like a Russian nesting doll, there was another bag inside of the bag with the kitty litter which contained a cardboard box. Carefully we tore open the layers of bags and exhumed the box. Again and even stronger wave of stink cleared the room of everyone but Rick and I.
And there on the mailing label of the box was the invoice from Cato Corner Farm in Connecticut. A brief note about Cato Corner. Cato is a small farm in Connecticut that makes some of the best cheese I have ever had. We worked with them when I was at applewood in Brooklyn, NY and Mark has been kind enough to overnight me cheese directly. One of the cheeses he makes is a wash rind beauty called Hooligan. The rind has a very strong barnyard odor but a creamy, full-flavored interior.
I had called Mark about a week previous and left a message for an order. It hadn't arrived that week but I thought nothing of it because I know how busy a farmer's life can become. But now it was all beginning to add up.
I looked at the date on the invoice: April 29. It had arrived on Monday, May 5. That means this unrefrigerated box of cheese had traveled for almost a week instead of overnight. Hence, the "strong odor".
Why DHL did not deliver the package overnight we will probably never know. Someone along the line of transit thought it probably smelled a little funny and thought the way to correct that was to let it sit in a warehouse over the weekend. Maybe that would teach it a lesson!
The cheese was, of course, ruined. Throwing away such a finely produced artisan product was utterly depressing. Knowing the care, effort, and money that Mark put into that cheese only to have it ruined by someone so utterly careless.
When I spoke to Mark about it on the phone he sounded defeated. Of course he would send me a replacement right away. And when it came two days later the box looked like this.
I need to follow up with Mark and find out if DHL reimbursed him for the cost of his lost cheese. Something tells me this large corporation is not going to hand him over his money so quickly.
In the meantime, if you live in the area you should come on down to the shop and try some excellent, non-hazardous cheese from Cato Corner farm in Colchester, Connecticut.
Bill said he had put the cheese in the beer cooler and that we should follow him. Rick (owner of France 44) and I followed Bill to the beer cooler where we found, to everyone's surprise except for Bill, a hazardous waste drum. It looked something like, no, EXACTLY like this hazardous waste drum.
So many questions. Why? How? Why??? Okay, deep breath, we examined the salvage drum and there was a note written on top. It read something, no exactly, like this:
Strong odor? Okay, so now we were even more confused. Rick and I picked the thing up and carried it to the cheese shop. But what else was there to do but open the drum? Which is not as easy as you would think because they actually bolted the drum shut. After all, there was hazardous material inside. So we grabbed a wrench and twisted and twisted and finally popped open the drum...First thing first. You will notice that there are no more pictures of this event. All will be clear as to why not.
I am sure most of you remember the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark". And if you remember that movie then you will most certainly remember the final scene of the movie when the Nazis open the lost ark of the covenant. Indiana Jones and Marianne are tied to a post while the Nazis open this extremely holy artifact. Of course they open it and all sorts of scary ghouls come flying out and disintegrate the screaming Nazis into nothingness.
That's kinda like what happened when we opened the drum (except without the Nazis). The smell, oh the smell. By the time we opened the thing a crowd of wine shop employees had gathered in the cheese store. And one of them exclaimed "I've smelled a rotting corpse before and that's what this thing smells like". The whole building here instantly filled up with the stench. But we couldn't just stop the procedure. We had to find the source.
Inside the drum was a large bag. We noticed that the bag was filled with a substance that we soon discerned was kitty litter. Then, like a Russian nesting doll, there was another bag inside of the bag with the kitty litter which contained a cardboard box. Carefully we tore open the layers of bags and exhumed the box. Again and even stronger wave of stink cleared the room of everyone but Rick and I.
And there on the mailing label of the box was the invoice from Cato Corner Farm in Connecticut. A brief note about Cato Corner. Cato is a small farm in Connecticut that makes some of the best cheese I have ever had. We worked with them when I was at applewood in Brooklyn, NY and Mark has been kind enough to overnight me cheese directly. One of the cheeses he makes is a wash rind beauty called Hooligan. The rind has a very strong barnyard odor but a creamy, full-flavored interior.
I had called Mark about a week previous and left a message for an order. It hadn't arrived that week but I thought nothing of it because I know how busy a farmer's life can become. But now it was all beginning to add up.
I looked at the date on the invoice: April 29. It had arrived on Monday, May 5. That means this unrefrigerated box of cheese had traveled for almost a week instead of overnight. Hence, the "strong odor".
Why DHL did not deliver the package overnight we will probably never know. Someone along the line of transit thought it probably smelled a little funny and thought the way to correct that was to let it sit in a warehouse over the weekend. Maybe that would teach it a lesson!
The cheese was, of course, ruined. Throwing away such a finely produced artisan product was utterly depressing. Knowing the care, effort, and money that Mark put into that cheese only to have it ruined by someone so utterly careless.
When I spoke to Mark about it on the phone he sounded defeated. Of course he would send me a replacement right away. And when it came two days later the box looked like this.
I need to follow up with Mark and find out if DHL reimbursed him for the cost of his lost cheese. Something tells me this large corporation is not going to hand him over his money so quickly.
In the meantime, if you live in the area you should come on down to the shop and try some excellent, non-hazardous cheese from Cato Corner farm in Colchester, Connecticut.
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