Tomorrow the face of government cheese could change forever.  Or more likely the face of agricultural policies for small farmers, the guys we depend on for cheese.  Most New York City residents are not likely to be thinking about what the candidates will do for small farmers- but we all should be.  All of those purveyors who you regularly buy from at the Greenmarket are hanging on by a string while agribusiness tries to swallow them up. 

       Strong support of small farmers is good for our wallets, stomachs and the environment.  The government should be subsidizing small farms to encourage local economies- for us, the general tristate area and New England.  Most of our American cheeses hail from the great state of Vermont.

    So then, what do the two candidates have to say about small farms?  Well, nothing too clear.

 Senator John McCain believes that, “Farming and agriculture production is part of the backbone of our great country. As president, I will support addressing the larger needs of the farming community abiding by the same standards of common sense and fiscal restraint as demonstrated by our nation’s hardworking families.”

Obama said, “If Washington continues policies that work against America’s family farmers, our rural communities will fall further behind — and so will America. But if we reject the politics that has shut ordinary folks out, we can create a new story for rural America…”

Upon further reading on both of the candidates’ websites they actually tow a similar line.  Both promise to cut down on subsidies to agribusiness, change tariffs and put money into rural economies.  Hopefully this means cutting back on the chemically fertilized monoculture type of farm the government currently endorses with such energy and furvor.  The one difference is that Obama wants to work towards regionally supported agriculture.  McCain will push for freer markets and the reduction of trade barriers.  No real surprise there, at least for me, that Obama is the locavore of the bunch. 

    Where is this all going?  What does it have to do with cheese?  Well our farmers need us and they also need the government.  Farm insurance is largely dependent on the government.  A bad season, a disaster, illness can ruin a farmer’s livelihood.  In turn all of that local, organic and fresh food we city folk love can vanish as quickly as it arrived.  Those guys over at Slow Food keep telling us to “Vote with your fork,” they have a point, a big one and the values embodied by small scale agriculture depend on it.

 Ommmmm.  More like Ummmmmmm.  I am skeptical about this idea, but a lot of my closest friends, particularly my closest male friends seem enamoured with it.  Being a born and bred New Englander I have never encountered a Turducken, we’ve always kept our Thanksgivings to a plain turkey and a touch of familial tension; very little excitment over layered poultry.  In fact, I haven’t met anyone from the south yet who is a proponent of the Beast (read: Turducken) and I ask myself if it is a southern myth or if it is shame at the gluttony it represents. 

 

I am undecided if the gluttony of this dish is shameful or like a chocolate cake, or champagne and worthy reward for the holidays.  In general I am a stickler for knowing where my meat comes from, in the case of the Turducken, in order to justify it, I am for taking things one step further.  Each man (or woman) should hunt for his own hen, duck and turkey; each layer should serve as a reward.     Thanksgiving is a month away but everywhere I go there is talk of meats for the day.  Last night was a particularly carnivorous one as I listened to some friends of mine discuss the smoke-teepee in which they planned to cook the Turducken.  I then began to question how I, once nearly a vegetarian, friend of animals and vegans, fell in with this crowd. 

      I am actually a little nervous to mention this idea to my father, he likes experimenting with traditional foods and I don’t think he would much mind walking through the forest in search of at least a wild turkey.  Then again, he likely knows about the Turducken, I realize I am a little late to the table.   Maybe I will suggest it for the dinner next month.  Really, what is there to doubt about a whole animal terrine?

Lula’s Chocolate from Monterey is so incredibly good and we would know because of the amazing samples they sent us.  Maybe if you come in and beg we will give you a try.  I thought I had completely lost my sweet tooth, I haven’t been really hooked on a sweet in a while, but now I really cannot seem to stop eating this toffee; it is so smooth and crunchy, chocolatey and buttery.  I need to put the bag away and save some for everyone else.  Since it has only been sold on the west coast we are the only shop in the city who’s got it.  There are caramels, rockyroad marshmellow and some other addictive confections.  The company is family owned and operated by Scott Lund who follows his grandmother, Lula’s, recipes.   And it has arrived just in time to appease the most discerning trick-or-treater.

    Placemats are at the center of Italian eating.  If you are sitting at a table, you have a placemat in front of you.  I suppose it is a nice tradition, keeping things clean and tidy and not ruining one’s kitchen table.  The ironic thing is, however, that that the placemats often become dirty and worn so you are still eating on a suspicious surface.  The most problems infact, usually involve cheese.  Graded cheese, melted cheese, soft and sticky cheese, on the bottom sides of placemats all across Italy after months, even years of meals at the table.  I don’t mean to say that everyone has a house-full of dirty placemats, I admit it is probably just the people I know. 

    I once lived with two of the heaviest chainsmokers I have ever met for about six months.  They were cousins and created an axis of flith and confusion in our house, so strong, I nearly had to escape in the night.  They ashed their cigarette butts on their dinner plates after a meal, but the one time I sat down at the table and placed my dish directly on the wood they screamed in fright.  “Ma, sei pazza?”  I am afraid I was crazy because there was a reenactment of the same scenario only a week later at a friend’s house.  Had I learned nothing?  

      It isn’t that people don’t use placemats elsewhere,  it is just I have never seen any people use them with such urgency.  My grandmother used cloth placemats, which much like her tiled kitchen floor, served as a collection trough for anything fallen from plate or counter.  She did her best to rebel against the stereotype of the sparkling Sicilian kitchen.  The nuns from my Montessori kindergarten also were into placemats, but they made us clean them ourselves, with windex, when we were five. 

       I only think of it now because last week at my friend’s house, where he never is the one who cooks (his girlfriend and her sister do that…), he certainly remembered his placemats.  They were a little worn and had some bits of cheese embedded in them.  Frankly, it felt like home.  For all intensive purposes his kitchen was clean, but there was something antique about it all, some pieces that after decades would never change or vanish. 

A few weeks ago Bloomingdale’s had a photo shoot at the cheese shop.  It being such a glamorous place and all…

we stood around and gawked while the models and photographers made love to our window displays.

(See pages 12-13)

It is also rumored that our darling Amy has been featured in a past issue of Nylon Magazine that none of us can seem to get our hands on- June or July 08.  If you have a copy, please bring it in!

http://bloomingdalesbymail.shoplocal.com/index.aspx?pagename=flash&fsid=8440337e-dc77-415a-a85c-a9549740c8c5&pagenumber=1&circularid=13899

      We have the Vermont Shepherd!  An aged, raw sheeps milk cheese from Putney Vermont.  The farm has about 250 sheep and they make this aged alpiney/pecorino wonder from the freshest, best milk in the land.  The cheese reminds me of the Flixer that we get from Rolf Beeler crossed with some saltier Southern Italian pecorino.  In 2001 this cheese won Best In Show at the American Cheese Society competition.  it is sweet and savory and even a bit barnyardy and full of lovely sheepy fat. 

     This farm operates a self-service cheese stand and pretty much embodies the spirit of Vermont that is missing from Brooklyn life.  (Although I guess one shouldn’t expect Vermont values everywhere….)  The cave the Major family uses is shared by their cheesemaking neighbors as well.   I have brought this cheese all over the place this past weekend.  It goes well with beer and with sparkling whites.  It is a favorite of sophisticated cheese lovers and hungry friends.  So as always I’m back to the glory of sheep.  They get a bad rap in all of the metaphors, but I don’t find them to be any weaker in character than the goat or the cow, maybe just less understood.  In fact, I have met some pretty obstinate sheep in my day, sheep who would plow you down to get to a feed bucket or to defend their young.   In addition they just make some of the best cheese and they are so cute and useful in many ways, beyond their dashing good looks. 

…just like Robert Frost once said…(?)

        One of our favorite regulars brought us about five pounds of green beans and ten or so massive cucumbers from his garden upstate.  Needless to say I ran home and started cooking.  For the rest of the week I brought greenbeans and cucumbers everywhere, feeding the vegetable deprived cheese-lovers the world over.  We actually have a big jar of them in the back fridge here at the shop; they are sitting in some spicey pickle brine for a few more weeks before we devour them.

We inspired The Hold Steady….

http://stereogum.com/archives/hold-steady-loves-oasis-sort-of_011315.html

Each time I take a trip to the Greenmarket I feel more and more compelled to move out to the country and raise some sheep, the world’s most amazing animal (more on this later.) Inspiration hits me even stronger when I am confronted with people who have actually done this….and are successful at it! A number of years ago an American woman and a German man met in Brazil and decided that neither of them wanted very much to leave. Both being ardent environmentalists they began to make the most of the land, organic farming came naturally to them and soon they were helping other farmers in the area to convert to organic production. The town where they are located is in the state of Rio de Janeiro and is an old mining community.

I like fruit pastes but this is something different, this tastes like actual fruit. It comes in fig, peach and guava. With some salty sheep’s milk cheese and a bottle of something cold and white, or some Spanish cider you really have an entire afternoon planed for you.