Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Coming Out of American Cheese - The 6th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival

There's been an explosion of interest in artisan and farmstead cheeses in the United States as demonstrated in Oregon's 6th Annual Cheese Festival hosted by the historic Rogue Creamery on March 20, 2010.



Typically, Wisconsin and Vermont have been known as the "cheese states" but a whiff is in the air, a new wind of appreciation for cheese in the United States has resulted in many new creameries going online. American cheese is having a coming out of sorts, keeping in stride with their more senior European counterparts.

This was also confirmed in the World Cheese Championships that just took place on March 18, 2010 where 2,300 cheeses were judged by an international panel of judges. Out of 79 categories, New York took 6 gold medals, Idaho took 5, California 4, Vermont 3, Georgia and Pennsylvannia 2, and Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, New Jersey, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and South Carolina took home 1 gold medal. An astonishing 21 gold medals were awarded to Wisconsin, as JSOnline reports. The world cheese champion for 2010 though, still goes to Switzerland this year. (Source)

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