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GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2018 n GOURMET NEWS 7 2 Rockin' and Rollin' in the House that Humboldt Fog Built By Lorrie Baumann Cypress Grove originally started in 1983 in a couple of old barns in McKinleyville, Cal- ifornia, before moving 13 years ago to its present-day home in Arcata, a small agricul- tural community just north of Eureka and just south of the border between California and Oregon. "We realized we needed a proper cheese- making facility," says Cody Wandel, Cypress Grove Quality Technician. "That gave us our first purpose-built cheese facility.... Our kind of cheese is very difficult to make and get to market in good condition. We've been evolv- ing our ability to provide the optimum envi- ronment for the cheese." In those days, Cypress Grove Chevre, as it was known then, consisted of about 15 or 20 people following the lead of Founder Mary Keehn in making high quality goat cheeses that adventurous eaters who weren't familiar with goat milk cheeses found easy to love. An American food movement that valued the local, the sustainable, the artisanal, had just started gathering momentum, and Cypress Grove's Humboldt Fog exploded into the scene as an American Original with aesthetics that combined a visually striking appearance with a mellow flavor that reminded precisely no one of the barnyard. "We were there and we were well established," Wandel says "People in America decided they were will- ing to give goat cheese a try." Today, Cypress Grove is owned by Swiss holding company Emmi, a company with majority ownership by a cooperative of farmers and dairy operators that bought Cy- press Grove from Keehn in 2010. Cypress Grove now employs over 70 people, includ- ing those at a new demonstration dairy made possible by Emmi's capital invest- ment, and Keehn is still the spiritual leader guiding the values that appeal to consumers concerned about the environment and social justice as well as flavor. "Emmi's model is not to be involved in the day-to-day, so we really operate as an autonomous company," Wandel says. "It's been one of the chal- lenges – how to grow and keep the sense of intimacy we all used to have with Mary back in the old days.... We pretty much are rolling the way we always did.... It's very important that our goat cheese is the best you can get." "The goal of an artisan cheesemaker is to create a cheese that is roughly the same every time, as opposed to a commodity cheese, which is exactly the same every time," he continues. "All of our cheeses are almost entirely hand-made, and they're all made in the same process we've always made." Cypress Grove's cheeses include the fresh chevres that were among the first products that Keehn made when she found herself with a herd of show goats and more milk than she and her family could use. "I started raising goats as a show herd, but if you have enough animals to have a strong genetic base, it's too much milk to drink," she says. Her first thought was to sell the milk locally, but it was quickly apparent that there wasn't enough of a local market for fluid goat milk, so Keehn began making cheese and selling it to retailers wherever she could find them, which was sometimes at the Winter Fancy Food Show, where she'd bring cheese in ice chests – or even in her purse – and urge show attendees to have a taste. "From the very beginning, I was selling out of the area," she says. "I don't know why we survived. The cheese was always good, but nobody liked it then.... If you have goats, you're a little stubborn in the first place – and weird." Then came a chance for Keehn to go to France and learn more about traditional Euro- pean cheeses, including the Morbier that was something of an inspiration for Humboldt Fog. Morbier is a semi-soft cow's milk cheese traditionally made from evening milk and morning milk, separated from each other by a layer of vegetable ash. On her way home from that trip, Keehn had a dream in which she saw, almost photographically, an image of a goat cheese with a black layer of vegetable ash bi- secting it like the coastal fog layer that fre- quently floats among the hills around her Humboldt County home. "The naivety of it – it's wrong in many ways," she reflects now. "I didn't know what I didn't know." "Nobody liked it for quite a while," she adds. "We threw away a lot of cheese." Some of the people who did like it, though, were rather influential: New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant men- tioned Humboldt Fog in a 1997 article about growing interest in fine cheeses, and Russ Parsons, a former food editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, asked Keehn to send some to Julia Child for her birthday. "She happened to taste it, and she liked it," Keehn says. Humboldt Fog is still made in essentially the same way that it was in those early days: by hand, by cheesemakers who are asked to remember that they're not just making cheese – they're making Humboldt Fog. There are a couple of differences: the cheese is now inoculated with some Geotrichum mold as well as the Penicillium culture in its original recipe, which extends its shelf life a little bit without affecting its flavor, and Cy- press Grove is making – and selling – a great deal more of it now that Humboldt Fog has become one of America's most popular arti- sanal cheeses. "It just takes time and really sticking with what you care about," Keehn says. The path from Cypress Grove's earliest days is marked along the way by new cheeses, some of which are no longer made, although they're remembered in plaques out- side the meeting rooms in Cypress Groves' new offices. Truffle Tremor, another aged goat cheese that's fancied up with the addi- tion of real truffle pieces for an earthy taste of knee-buckling decadence, is a hearty sur- vivor of a ruthless market. Truffle Tremor started as an experiment in whether truffles and goat cheese could find happiness together, and it wasn't exactly love at first sight, Keehn remembers. She added some truffles to fresh chevre and realized im- mediately that the bright, clean flavors of her chevre and the mellow earthiness of the truf- fles conflicted, as did the contrasting textures of the truffles and the fresh cheese. "It was like a fight in your mouth," she said. "It was so bad." Keehn responded by trying the same strategy that worked for the kids in "The Parent Trap" – putting the pair she loved away by them- selves so they could fight it out, in the hope that maybe they'd find a way to get along. Two or three weeks later, she brought the aged truffled cheese out into a staff meeting and asked peo- ple what they thought. "We tried this cheese – I swear, this was my, 'You coulda heard a pin drop' moment," recalls Cypress Grove Sales Director Bob McCall. "Nobody said a word for a long time, and then somebody just said, 'I think you have a winner.'" "I love it when they do the happy dance," Keehn adds. "I don't believe in doing something unless you can really knock it out of the park. There's no need for another mediocre cheese.... For us, cheese is a ve- hicle to make people's lives happier." Korean Premium Seafood Brand, K·FISH, Introduced to U.S. Market The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea introduced K·FISH, Ko- rean fishery exports national brand, to the global market on November 9 in Los Ange- les, California. In an effort to promote the excellent qual- ity of products from the Korean sea, the Ko- rean ministry developed K·FISH with the intention of making it a globally competitive premium seafood brand. K·FISH is the first government-certified fishery exports na- tional brand of premium marine products se- lected on strict management regulations, meticulous quality control, and systemic evaluation standards. At present, 11 species are available, including fresh flatfish, abalone (fresh and processed), Gim/ laver (dry and seasoned), sea cucumber (dry), oys- ter (frozen), red snow crab, fish cake (steamed, grilled, fried and fish meat sausage), squid (seasoned), conger (fillet), tuna (canned and pouched) and Miyok/sea mustard (dry). The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries plans to expand the export of K·FISH grad- ually, starting with the U.S., a key fishery trade partner, then to Asian countries in- cluding China and finally moving on to Eu- rope, South America and the Middle East in 2018. The U.S. launch event marks the introduc- tion of K·FISH to the global market, and is expected to offer a significant opportunity for promoting the excellent quality of seafood from the Republic of Korea. Los An- geles was selected as the forum for the launch in recognition of the value of the U.S. as a leading trade partner. The launch event included presentations and a cooking demonstration by Chef Kerry Heffernan, a renowned seafood expert who demonstrated special Korean-inspired recipes using fresh K·FISH products, followed by tasting. The K·FISH trademark is registered as of September, in 36 countries including the U.S., EU, Japan, and China. The trademark application process is currently in review in 16 countries including Russia and Viet- nam. The K·FISH logo was created by modifying the Taegeuk symbol that stands for Korea, in which the three primary col- ors represent the clean ocean (blue), good texture (yellow) and quality control (red), respectively. Bare Snacks Launches bare Organic Chia Coconut Bites Bare Snacks ® is launching bare ® Organic Chia Coconut Bites, a USDA-certified or- ganic spin on the company's line of bare Chia Coconut Bites. Available in the same flavors, including Chia + Vanilla, Chia + Pineapple and Chia + Flax, bare Organic Chia Coconut Bites give consumers an or- ganic superfood snack that combines the power of chia and coconut into one tasty bite. "When we launched bare Chia Coconut Bites earlier this year, we wanted to intro- duce a new kind of superfood snack – one that follows our 'less is more' ingredient philosophy, while still delivering on nutri- tion, incredible flavor and maximum crunch appeal," said Santosh Padki, Chief Execu- tive Officer at Bare Snacks. "The launch was met with wide-open arms from both consumers and retailers, so developing an organic version that appeals to ingredient- conscious shoppers was only natural. We're excited to upgrade the snack aisle with our new organic line and offer everyone a su- perfood option for snacking wherever their day takes them." Bare Organic Chia Coconut Bites are made from delicately sliced coconuts that are sustainably harvested, lightly seasoned with whole-food ingredients and baked with a generous sprinkling of chia seeds. The crunchy new snacks are Non-GMO Project Verified as well as certified organic, gluten free, and contain no trans fats, added oils or preservatives. The Chia + Vanilla variety is made from thin slices of organic coconut slow-baked with authentic Madagascar vanilla and coated with organic chia seeds for an exoti- cally satisfying and crunchy bite. Chia + Pineapple Coconut Bites offer tropical or- ganic pineapple that complements the natu- rally sweet flavor of organic coconut, all finished with a dusting of organic chia seeds. Chia + Flax Coconut Bites have a nutrient- dense combination of two powerful organic seeds, chia and flax, resulting in a super healthy and crunchy duo. Bare Organic Chia Coconut Bites are available now at natural and specialty retail- ers with a retail price of $5.69 for a 2.8- ounce bag. Like all bare snacks, the organic bites are baked, never fried, using bare's pro- prietary slow-baking process.

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