It’s easy to understand how seasonality impacts produce. The juiciest strawberries, crispest apples, and sweetest corn are all found in season. But, how does seasonality impact your favorite cheeses?

Because spring is when goats typically have their kids, goat cheese is in season in the spring. Stilton is famously best in the winter, when the wheels made with summer, pasture-fed milk are ripe. Rush Creek Reserve is made with lush autumn milk, meaning it’s only available in the late autumn and the beginning of winter.

Though many of our favorite cheeses are available year-round, cheese remains a seasonal product. Join us on Zoom on May 25th at 6pm to learn the ins and outs of the seasonality of cheese.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
– The history of seasonal cheesemaking and why most traditional cheeses were only made during part of the year
– How seasonality impacts industrial cheesemaking
– Which producers in the United States only make cheese for part of the year and why
– How to shop for seasonal cheeses

INSTRUCTOR BIO:
Christine Clark is a journalist and professional cheese nerd based in Burlington, Vermont. She is a Certified Cheese Professional by the American Cheese Society. Her work has appeared in Insider, Food52, The Spruce Eats, and more, and she has been featured in NY Times, Bon Appetit, and Complex as a cheese expert. She has taught cheese classes for Saxelby Cheesemongers, Murray’s Cheese, The Cheese School of San Francisco, Bedford Cheese, and more.

Join us for our second meet-up of the year with Peter Zien of CheeseSmith Artisan Creamery! We will be meeting each month on zoom to share product and industry information, hear cheesemaker stories and partake in open Q&A between the maker and our attendees. The goal of this educational series is to create opportunities for cheesemongers and cheese enthusiasts to meet directly with different cheesemakers and strengthen the bonds within our cheese community.

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HOW IT WORKS:
Each session is 60 minutes hosted on Zoom. The first 30 minutes will be an opportunity for the cheesemaker to share their history and talk about their cheese and anything new happening at their creamery. Then, we will open it up to a Q&A style conversation for cheesemongers and cheese community members to ask the maker anything they want. From details about their cheesemaking process to questions about different coloring or molds – anything goes! We want each attendee to leave with a new deeper understanding of the cheesemaker and their cheese.

ABOUT CHEESESMITH:
Peter Zien is the owner of AleSmith Brewing Company and CheeseSmith Artisan Creamery in San Diego and holds a BA in Political Science and JD in Law from the University of San Diego. AleSmith Brewing Company has been in operation since 1995 and has garnered some of the brewing industry’s highest awards, including 21 Great American Beer Festival medals, 10 World Beer Cup Awards, and its highest honor as the Brewery and Brewer of the Year at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO. AleSmith earned the title of the number one rated brewery in the world for three straight years and then again in 2013 on Ratebeer.com and is consistently rated in the top ten breweries in the world on numerous polls and websites.
Peter’s love for cheese-making began in 2000 when he made his first batch of cheese at home. The farmer who took his spent grain from brewing often repaid the favor with fresh, raw milk from the goats and cows that ate the spent grain as a feed supplement. Peter took cheese-making courses at Cal Poly SLO between 2006 and 2017, culminating in the opening of his own cheese-making facility, CheeseSmith Artisan Creamery, within the 106,000 sq. ft. AleSmith compound. A CDFA-certified creamery, Peter has been making various cheeses for sale in the brewery gift shop since opening the creamery in 2018.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
The goal of this educational series is to create opportunities for cheesemongers and cheese enthusiasts to meet directly with different cheesemakers and strengthen the bonds within our cheese community.

There are a few scholarship tickets reserved for professional cheesemongers. If you are interested in one of these tickets, please email info@cacheeseguild.org.