Here He Here He

Ok think of yourselves all as share holders. More like Milo Minderbinder and the Syndicate (from Catch-22) than NYSE but you get the idea- ok.
This is our first shareholder meeting. All who agree email Eye which is backwards for eye but also means YES!

Who here wants the Cheese Czarina to start making lovely oozy goozy melt in your mouth "I can't believe its not Brie" Camembert!
Eye!
Who here wants the Cheese Czarina to put her Camembert in those cute little wooden boxes?
Eye!

Email your votes please.
I hereby conclude this meeting. If you would like notes please contact the secretary. Thank you very much.

I would love some good Camembert! Back when I was younger and thinner and spoke better French I had a very French boyfriend and he had a very French house- in France of course. We would visit and get ourselves a wheel of Camembert de Normandie and a cucumber and some mayonnaise and the most delightful French (of course) baguette and have ourselves a little sandwich. It was wonderful but now I want to make it and put a very cool looking Jacobs Creamery sticker on it ;)

Things on the farm have been moving along. We are now milking lots of sheep and have lots of sheep milk and are making lots of wonderful cheeses with it. So wonderful in fact that the local paper got a hold of some of the wonderfulness and is doing a piece on what we are doing in Doty. They even sent a photographer and there will be photos and a lovely article all about our cheeses. I will have the link up on the blog www.jacobscreamery.blogspot.com when its published, since most of you don't get the Chehalis Cronicle :)
When the reporter asked me how I knew how to make cheese I told him "I don't I am just pretending, I am going back to Law School next week" I told him not to tell and the look on his face was priceless! I mean come on-I totally would never start law school in the Spring!

I always say when god gives you a surplus of sheep's milk - make yogurt!
So we will have some wonderful sheep's milk yogurt this week at the markets and also some more of that lovely herbed fromaged blanc that has been ubber popular. I also had a massive churning session today! Massive !Yeah for fresh spring butter! I scored some wonderful wildflower honey from the market on Saturday and made a special batch of Heavenly Honey butter-which is actually as fabulous as it sounds!
The Portland Farmers Market has launched its new Evergreen campaign this season and as an avid supporter I have used some very cool packaging! Come check it out!
This week is PSU and Hillsdale so please come by it would delight me to see you!


xoxoxo
Cheese Czarina
Smile, laugh and eat more dairy!

In the News!

Farmers market is back

Market at PSU returns for 18th season

By Corie Charnley

Vanguard staff

|

Published: Friday, April 23, 2010

Updated: Friday, April 23, 2010

Adam Wickham/Portland State Vangaurd

The farm in the city: Saturday Portland Farmers Market bigger than ever.

For the 2010 season, the Portland Farmers Market held on Saturdays at Portland State has grown in size after last year’s success. The market now includes another block, expanding its area to incorporate the blocks between Southwest Hall and Southwest Montgomery.

The market opened on March 20, attracting a record-setting 12,000 visitors, according to Deborah Pleva.

“We hope that trend continues throughout the season,” Pleva said.

Though the PFM received
650 applications this season, only 250 vendors were selected to serve at the market’s six locations throughout Portland.

“This is a record number of applications, second only to the 2009 season, which is recognized as one of the most successful years for the Portland Farmers Market,” Pleva said.

According to a press release,
the market’s extra space will allow the more than 120 vendors and 16,000 shoppers more space. However, although the market has doubled in size, it did not double in vendors.

The PFM has 19 new vendors this year, nine of which have booths at PSU. The new vendors include
15 Miles Ranch and Sexton Farms.

“We’re taking up twice the space,” said Jaret Foster, manager of PFM at PSU. “We’ve added around 20 vendor spots, but that doesn’t mean we’re adding twenty new vendors. What we’re trying to do is actually give more room to existing vendors.”

“We do give a priority to organic growers,” Foster said.

According to Pleva, PFM’s Market at PSU was established in 1992 by Craig Mosbaek, Ted Snider and Richard Hagan. It was originally held in a parking lot at Albers Mill in northwest Portland, but was moved to its current location in 1997. It is now the largest of Portland’s six markets, according to its website.

Commenting on what makes the location so popular, Lisa Jacobs, owner and cheese maker of Jacobs Creamery, said, “I think the varieties and the location, and also the fact that it’s pretty sheltered in the summer. The quality of all of the products that are represented here is pretty high.”

Jacobs Creamery, out of Doty, Wash., is the only businesses in the northwest to make specialty European dairy. Jacobs serves a variety of sheep and cow cheeses, as well as pudding, hand-churned butter and crème fraiche.

In conjunction with the season’s opening, PFM also launched its EverGreen Campaign. According to its website, the campaign is a green initiative that promotes the “eco-virtues of local living.” By 2012, PFM hopes to redirect 90 percent of the waste from its market sites to recycling and compost streams.

In addition, the market hosts a variety of events and musical guests throughout the year.

“Portland Farmers Market…serves as an incubator for emerging businesses, a leader of the local food movement, a source of education, a culinary focal point, a cultural destination complete with musical entertainment and a billboard for Portland’s sustainability movement,” Pleva said. “It creates community that represents the best Portland has
to offer.”

PFM at PSU is open every Saturday until October, from 8:30 a.m.
to 2 p.m. For more information about PFM, its vendors and upcoming events, visit its website at www.portlandfarmersmarket.org.

A horse is a horse of course of course!

So some of you may remember way back when I was on a hunt for Moose milk. It was wonderful how many of you turned into cheerleaders and did the splits with your pom poms and egged me on. It was sad, very sad when I returned on my Moose milk hunt with no milk A recent article on cheese made from a turtle again sparked my interest in cheese made from out of the norm animals. Moose milk cheese, turtle cheese maybe? What about horse milk cheese?
A week or two ago I was interviewing candidates to assist us in the milking of our sheep- its lovely to hear of the hum of the milk parlor again. When he answered my question "Have you ever milked anything before?' with a detailed explanation on how to milk a horse I knew I had found that special someone.
I filed this information away, not thinking that it would ever be useful.
One of my friends takes great pride in having his animals procreate. After moving on from breeding puppies he decided that baby horses were more interesting. Which is exactly how I came to have access to a lactating horse! According to an article in Draft horse Journal horse milk is a gourmet delicacy that has sweet undertones. The article states "Horse milk strengthens the body, boosts the immune system and increases a person’s energy and vitality."
The article also states "The adrenaline rush from milking a high-strung Arabian mare is like nothing else".
I am certain that I could use an adrenaline rush/energy boost and I would never ever say no to an increase in vitality so I have decided that I am of course going to milk a lactating horse! The last time I rode a horse was in the south of France in the country side - my horse obviously saw a mirage and took off through numerous amounts of corn fields with me screaming stop instead of arete! But milking is a WHOLE other ballpark.
I really do think that this will be a special moment in history and so I will be filming it and posting it up on my web site as part of a series of historical moments. It will be under the tab Jacobs Creamery moments in History. I am hoping that it will be amusing as well as informational. I promise that I will provide a review about the flavor of the horse milk.

This week I have pulled from the 'cave' some lovely Two Faced Blue which has been aged for a dazzling four months now. This is our sheep cow blend blue and this batch has a particularly sweet zingy tone and has some lovely creamy bluey undertones.
We will also have more of our fresh sheeps milk cheese and plenty of our fresh hand scooped italian style ricotta. Due to the fact that yogurt is very good for you and due to the fact that ours is incredibly tasty we will be having a special special on it this week. Please come by for samples and wish me luck!

Adieu Adieu
So long Farewell

Yours always with a zing and some bling
Cheese Czarina!

"I love me some Jacobs Creamery"

Its game time people- that's right game time!
Its clearly full season and the whole point of my existence is clear - make cheese- more cheese- make cheese and repeat- its comforting to know what it is I am supposed to do.
I having milk choices. I did two batches of full sheep's milk cheese this week. One will make its appearance in three months the other datatada! will make an appearance on Saturday at PSU and Sunday of course at Ol Faithful (aka Hillsdale farmers market).

Sometimes the cheese making part and the animals and the milk and milking and the scheduling and the markets and the weather and new products and more rainy weather and almost getting killed by a bull, and my girls getting pink eye and a sprained ankle all somehow overwhelm me. When this happens I usually go online and check flights to Italy and start planning my getaway.
My mind starts to wander to what ifs..........
What if when I got off the plane in Milan one of the Stoppani Brothers (who own Peck one of the most glamorous cheese shops in the world) met me at my plane and welcomed me to Italy and had arranged a tour of all my favorite Italian cheese-makers! What if he whisked me away to dairy after dairy and creamery after creamery teaching me all the practical things that I don't know now. What if when I thought nothing could get better we arrived in Campagnia where I met the cheese maker of a wonderful mascarpone di buffala. It just so happens in my hypothetical situation that the son is a mere 31 years old and is devastatingly handsome and would like someone to make cheese with. Of course he invites me to make cheese with him in his yellow tiled cheese room and hands me the ph meter so that I can control the cheese making. Afterward he would show me his herd of jersey cows, and the sheep and then water buffalo and then goats and then we would sit down and he would put the kettle on and ask me if I ever thought of milking a Moose.
aaahhhhh What a perfect world it could be with my what ifs!
And then the timer dings and I have to stir the vat again... But at least you will know where to find me if I am suddenly gone....

We all have our days or weeks sometimes when you just don't quite feel yourself-when your smile is a little upside down or when you feel like pulling the covers over your head or crying while simultaneously flushing your blackberry down the toilet- where no amount of Enya or Norah Jones does you any good...
Which is why I make one of the most ultimate comfort foods around. My signature Jacobs Creamery pudding is certainly something to lift your spirits! It can of course be used in a variety of different situations some of which you might never have ever thought of. Personality always shines through with how one gets the pudding out. Some like to scoop it out with a large spoon and some a cookie and some use their imaginations ;)
However you consume it you should know that it was carefully crafted to lift your spirits and make you smile. A picture of my absolute favorite pudding fan is attached!

Although its grammatically incorrect I did hear the following at the farmers market last weekend.
"I love me some Jacobs Creamery"
I know my fourth grade teacher would cringe -but I really think it would make a great bumper sticker!

Tatatatata!
Yours always
Cheese Czarina bobina fafa fofina! yeah!

Frogging and a near death experience with Mighty Moo

Hello welcome to this weeks Newsletter!

Yesterday evening after completing my second batch of cheese for the day I went home and waited for dusk to settle, eagerly anticipating my very first country frogging experience. Despite your overactive imagination frogging in the country does not entail a devastatingly handsome French man of about 6'2 waiting for me on my porch swing with a nice glass of Chateau de Beareguard. Frogging as the name suggests has more to do with catching frogs (or trying to) than handsome french men. Once I heard the croaks of the evening frogs I went out in my Hunter boots carrying a flashlight for my frog hunt. Settled in the far end of the eighty five acres nestled Mighty Moo and his flock of lady moo cows. I figured that there was a good distance between us and that all would be well. In the way way way way back of mind I remembered my neighbor telling me what a mean bull Mighty Moo was, but it was only at the way way way way back of my mind. I was in fact hunting for a little four year old boy's birthday present (NOT anti-angiogenic drugs) so I was trying to find a little toad before I froze to death out on the pasture. I was listening so intently to the ribbit and croak that I did not even see that Mighty Moo had decided to run right to me (also known in cow terms as charging) with his heard of lady Moos in tow. Oh shit. Sadly I did not drop a piece of my clothing as a diversion and run the other way. All I could do was think OH SHIT. I looked at the fence and it was far away there was no where for me to run because the pond is in the middle of the pasture. For the first time in my life it seemed I remained silent as the herd ran through the pond (which I have never ever seen them do) and passed me on both sides. I was left with a thick layer of mud caked on my face, legs and arms and in my hair but I was alive! I was alive!!!
Frogging alone at night with a temperamental bull in the field was not one of my brightest ideas.
Thankfully I survived and even managed to make some herbed fromage blanc the next day :)

For those of you that have not been bound and gagged and thrown in your basement and have been able to make it to the Portland State Farmers market you know how absolutely fabulous it has been. The new 'foot print' which is what all the PFM hipsters are calling it has proven to be very successful.
Our fresh spring pasture cultured butter will be plentiful this weekend- you can come by for a sample on some matzo this week since its Pesach and I don't want to get the evil eye from my parents for being a bad Jew and sampling it on bread.
In addition we will be having a special on our creme friache which pairs beautifully with some fresh spring vegetables that are popping up out of the ground and onto the vegetable stands.
We will also have an assortment of our aged cheeses that have been so popular these last few weeks. I will refrain from writing any lyrics about my cheeses this week but we will not be refraining from sampling them at the market so please stop by for a little nibble or two and let us tell you what is new!

Since its Easter and I am sure everyone is on the hunt for some eggs, you should know that we will have a bountiful amount. They are all very clean too, since my egg cleaner was on spring break I washed them ALL by hand myself. So clean eggs we will have and they will be in very festive spring pink eggs cartons. :)

Please stay tuned for next weeks newsletter which will be titled 'The cheese maker and 150 Ewes' and I will also feature some pictures of our new golden laying hens!

Yours always- and still alive!
Cheese Czarina!