Cheese Super Heroes! The Swiss Cheese Book
I used to say (okay, I still say) that the next time I go to CheeseCon -a.k.a an American Cheese Society Conference-, I'd bring a cape, maybe some tights, something bright and spandex-y, and a lasso. That CheeseCon has nothing to do with capes or super heroes in the traditional sense doesn't really have anything to do with it. Anytime you can attach Con to the end of a gathering of hundreds of people, as is done with ComicCon, you have, in my opinion, ample reason to attach a large piece of fabric to your neck wear green tights. And the lasso? Obvious. Cows. Cattle. By the way, have you seen how much work cheesemakers do in one day? A Super amount. ComicCon ain't got nothing on us cheese folk. Except... maybe the easy comic association.
Anyhow, I got a package the other day. My roommate is a grad student, so he gets about three to fifty-three packages a week filled with books, but, me? I rarely ever get a package. So I was already excited before I opened it. And then I opened it. And I was even more excited (one might say super excited).
The package? Well,"Swiss Cheese: Origins, Traditional Cheese Varieties and New Creations," by Dominik Flammer and Fabian Scheffold is the newest cheese book in my collection. One of the coolest things about the book, oh, you know, beyond its detailed description of the history and culture of the artisan Swiss cheese industry, and lively profiles of modern and traditional cheesemakers of the Alps and beyond, is its photos.
The cheesemakers in the photos look like super heroes (sans capes). Photographed standing on top of some of the highest mountains in Switzerland, lifting wheels of cheese while balancing on logs teetering over rushing streams, or rolling their wheels up grassy hills, cheesemakers are pictured in their element- holding something they created with love, in the region that matters most to them.
If you'd like to oogle cheeses in distant lands, in landscapes just as pretty as the animals that give their milk to make these wheels, check out this book. In can be found in English here. Available in French and German elsewhere.
Just wanted to share one of favorite cheese finds with you, first shared with me by Mz Tia Keenan of Murray's Cheese Bar.