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GOURMET NEWS MAY 2019 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 4 FROM THE EDITOR I attended the Oregon Cheese Festival for my first time this year, and now I'm wondering what took me so long. I made a vacation of it, driving for a day across Arizona and then another day up through California to Oregon, stopping at Belcampo Farms along to the way to tour the farm, take pictures of the new little piglets and learn about the Meat Camps they put on every year so people from around the country can come, stay in glamping tents (They have queen beds! In tents!), eat protein-packed platefuls of grilled meat, learn a little butchery from professional chefs and generally have a good time learning where meat comes from and what to do with it. Also, I understand that there are cocktails involved. Belcampo Farms is just south of the Ore- gon state line, so I didn't have to drive too far the following day to get to Central Point, Oregon, which is the home of both Rogue Creamery and the annual Oregon Cheese Festival. The opening event was the Cheesemakers Dinner, with entertainment that included a talk by Steve Jones, the co- author of the newly published "Cheese Beer Wine Cider: A Field Guide to 75 Per- fect Pairings," and a meal that offered a sort of group participation exercise that paired Oregon cheeses with a lot of things I wouldn't ordinarily drink. And to be per- fectly honest, don't plan ever to drink again. Ah, but then the festival itself opened the next day, when I joined more than 5,000 people from all across the western half of Oregon and some of northern California on an exploration of three festival tents of cheeses, food that goes well with cheeses, samplings by local craft brewers and winer- ies and workshop sessions. Also, there were food trucks! Over the course of the weekend, I did a lot of wandering around buttonholing peo- ple to ask them where they were from and why they'd driven halfway across the state to pay $20 apiece to come and shop for cheese instead of just wandering over to their local grocery store. Some of them said they came because it was a lovely spring weekend, there was beer and wine and what's not to like about cheese; others came because they wanted to support their local producers and also there was beer and wine; and one woman said she was there for her once-a-year chance to get her hands on a wedge of Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise. On the other side of that Tarentaise was Spring Brook Farm Cheese Program Di- rector Jeremy Stephenson, who would probably have won the award, should that award have existed, for the person who came the farthest for cheese on that week- end. His sales at the Oregon Cheese Festi- val covered his airfare for the flight from Vermont, but he wasn't at the festival — or any other festival or farmers market that he attends — for any reason that could be justified by sales numbers, he said. Instead, he was there for fellowship with other cheesemakers and for the chance to talk to members of the public about cheese. He wasn't alone in that — another of the festival-goers that I talked to there said that this was her first time at this particular event, but she'd attended local wine festivals before, and she was very surprised at the difference. At the Oregon Cheese Festival, the cheesemakers were so gracious and friendly and so will- ing to explain to her about their cheeses and to answer her questions. They made her feel welcome — like they weren't just there to sell her something — and she plans to come back again next year. Until next month, and time to pack and go to New York for the Summer Fancy Food Show, cheers! Do look for- ward to the story about Belcampo Farms that will be appearing in the June issue of Gourmet News! GN — Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director FROM THE EDITOR WWW.GOURMETNEWS.COM PUBLISHER Kimberly Oser SENIOR ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jules Denton-Card jules_d@oser.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lorrie Baumann editor@oser.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Anthony Socci anthony_s@oser.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Greg Gonzales Jeanie Catron Amanda Helt ART DIRECTOR Yasmine Brown GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jonathan Schieffer CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGERS Caitlyn McGrath Susan Stein CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Tara Neal tara_n@oser.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Jamie Green jamie_g@oser.com EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Heather Albrecht heather_a@oser.com PUBLISHING OFFICE 1877 N. Kolb Road P.O. Box 1056 Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300 Fax 520.721.6300 SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Gourmet News P.O. Box 30520 Tucson, AZ 85751 520.721.1300 G OURMET N EWS ® OSER COMMUNICATIONS GROUP FOUNDER Lee M. 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