County Fair Winner

I entered my cheese in the Santa Cruz County Fair for the first time this year and I won!!! I received a 1st place for a camembert style goat cheese and 3rd place for a fresh chevre with a herbs de provence, basque paprika and sea salt crust.To be honest I expected nothing for the camembert and a first for the fresh so I was pleasently surprised. I have been working on the camembert style and have made several batches, but the one I entered was the first I made.

I will post a pictures of the winning cheeses.

This week I made a chedder which is a really fun cheese to make. It is still in the cheese press, it gets pressed for a total of about 36 hours. It will then get air dried and bandaged or waxed and aged for at least 6 months. The first one I made this year I sent back east to my brother and told him to keep it in his basement till Christmas. Boy did that p$&* him off. HE loves cheese and will have a really hard time not touching that 2 pound wheel of cheddar until Christmas. Ah, it will be it a great present though, if he can wait.

I also made a Spanish Cheese this week called a Cabral al Vino which is a washed curd cheese, semi-soft, soaked in red wine. It looks beautiful and rustic and will be fun to eat in about two months - which seems like instant gratification in the cheese world.