First of all, an apology. When I find myself in a room surrounded by artisanal cheese, my note-taking skills go right out the window, so while I have lovely pictures of cheese for readers to enjoy, pairing them up with the appropriate cheesemakers might be difficult, especially because we were sampling from more than one place at a time.
The images below were taken at the Ontario Cheese Society Artisan Market and Tasting last Tuesday at Hart House. The market follows a day-long conference of Ontario cheesemakers and Ontario Cheese Society members in which they discuss all things related to cheese in Ontario. In the evening a number of the cheesemakers offer samples and items for sale – as many of the cheeses on offer are very rare, this is an exciting event for those of us who love eating the stuff.
Participating cheesemakers included Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, Ewenity, Ivanhoe, Glengarry Fine Cheese, River’s Edge Goat Dairy, Empire Cheese and Butter Co-op, Pine River, and Upper Canada Cheese Company, while Cheese of Canada and Culinarium offered some selections from some of the dairies they represent. Also on hand were the folks from Margaret’s Artisan Bakery and Evelyn’s Crackers.
Those of you with lactose intolerance or a casein allergy – proceed with caution.
Hand-rolled Chevre from Fifth Town.
Lighthall Tomme from Fifth Town.
Rounds of sheeps milk cheese from Ewenity.
Samples from Glengarry
The much-loved Niagara Gold from Upper Canada Cheese Company.
Cheese and crackers, anyone? (80s ed. strikes again.)
Squeaky curds at the Empire table.
Some rare items for sale from Cheese of Canada.
Flavoured cheddars from Empire.
A brie and another Morbier-style cheese – maybe from Fifth Town?
Yet more samples.