Martha Loves Vermont Cheese!

What do Saxelby Cheesemongers and Martha Stewart have in common? Well, we're no good at baking, so that's out... And when people come to my apartment they generally peer in skeptically and heave a heavy sigh of pity as they eye mini mountain ranges of clutter, but (and there has to be a but...) we do both love Vermont cheese! In fact, Martha and her band of fellow food lovers are so enamored that they dedicated a sprawling, gorgeous spread to the Green Mountain State in the November issue of 'Martha Stewart Living'.

In the pages of Martha's magazine, farms we love like Jasper Hill, Consider Bardwell, Thistle Hill, and Blue Ledge Farm all bask in the cheesy glow of praise bestowed on them by America's first lady of taste. If you don't get a chance to pick up the latest issue of the magazine, tune in to the Martha Stewart Show on November 5th for a tour de fromage with Vermont's finest cheese artisans as they take the stage and talk cheese!

Bound together by a love of their landscape, Vermont cheesemakers are making change, and I don't mean like a toll booth operator. From keeping local farms vibrant and economically sound, to creating jobs and an artisan tradition in one fell swoop, cheesemakers are leaving their mark, and a good one at that, on the state. Vermont's agrarian tradition relies on a multitude of small independent farms as the foundation for the preservation of the working landscape as well as the invigoration of small rural communities. This may sound like a bunch of idealistic hoo-ha, but the bottom line is that cheese allows small Vermont dairies to survive, and all the while producing something that tastes great! Who can argue with that??

So, if you'd like to taste for yourself what all the ruckus is about, stop by the shop for a nibble or two of delicious Vermont farmstead cheese. For this week only, Saxelby Cheesemongers is offering a special on Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, that delicious, creamy-as-all-get-out, butterscotchy-sweet behemoth round of cheese that is a special collaboration between the old timers (Cabot Creamery) and the greenhorns, relatively speaking (Jasper Hill Farm) of the Vermont cheese biz. We'll be cutting Cabot for $16 per pound, a five dollar slice off the regular price. If you haven't tried this cheese yet, shame on you! In our opinion, it's one of the best cheeses to ever hail from the great state of Vermont.

Till next week, stay tuned to Saxelby Cheesemongers for more cheesy news from the northeast!

If Video Killed the Radio Star...

If video killed the radio star, then the old interweb revived it, zombie-like, and plunked radio down into another dimension.

This week's episode of 'Cutting the Curd' on the Heritage Radio Network was all kinds of intertwined. I interviewed Chris Gray, of Consider Bardwell Farm, about the unlikely intersections of cheese and rock and roll. For Chris, it wasn't a far leap from a career in beautiful music to a gig with farmstead cheese. The permutations that technology and craft are undergoing are mind boggling, yet sort of straightforward in the end. Mr. Gray loved music for it's independent, artistic, and expressive underpinnings. When the label he worked with for many years became co-opted by industry bigwigs, he was left in a little bit of a spiritual lurch. Suddenly the artists that he admired and sweated for for so many years were no longer 'viable' in that terrible, flattening, economical way that renders FM radio largely unlistenable today.

In an unlikely turn of events (oh, aren't the best things always so!!!) friends and fellow urbanites of Chris Gray and his wife Laura Brown bought a house in the podunk town of Pawlet, Vermont for weekend respites from the crazy life. Chris wended his way to Consider Bardwell Farm after a couple of innocent drives past the farm whilst weekend-ing, and is now a bonafide cheesemaker and professional farmers' market man/nomad/gypsy that would make the old world equivalents blush.

On the show, what began as a silly question ('Is there a connection between cheese and rock and roll? Beyond that British ex-Blur singer who now has a dairy??') soon evolved into a lively and deep discourse about the nature of craft. Where big business squelches the goodness out of cottage industries, new opportunities mutuate and create mutuality between lovers of homespun, authentic things.

The moral of the story? If the dairy industry killed the cheese as we knew it, the radio stars are ready to step in and take a (milk) stand. Listen in and see for yourself!

A side note worth your eyes' attention for one more minute this Monday morn. From here on out, Saxelby Cheesmongers has decided to feature one cheese per week at a special price to further the gustatory delight of fromage lovers across the city. This week's cheese has a special connection to rock and roll, as it's name was spawned by a classic Aerosmith song....

Mixed Emotions
(raw goat and cows' milk. Lazy Lady Farm, VT)
regularly $26.99/lb, now $20.99/lb

Laini Fondiller, our resident poet laureate of goat cheese, was inspired to name this cheese after making another called 'Sweet Emotions.' If the sweet one was all cow, surely the combination of the milks could be dubbed 'Mixed Emotions.' Our feelings on the cheese however are crystal clear! It is by turns sweet, musky and earthy, exuding an essence of freshly overturned soil and mushrooms. From the gray tomme style rind to the ivory interior, we're all kinds of infatuated.

Till next Monday, may cheese, rock and roll, and all the other arts inefficient by nature inspire you.

In the Wise Words of 'They Might Be Giants'

'Even old New York was once New Amsterdam... Why they changed it I can't say. Guess someone liked it better that way!!!'

Saxelby Cheesemongers at the New Amsterdam Market!
Sunday, October 25th
11:00 am to 4:00 pm
South Street between Beekman and Peck Slip
click here for a map



We at Saxelby Cheesemongers, agree with the immortal words of 'They Might Be Giants'. New Amsterdam is just fine by us! (No offense to the Brits reading this) Our great city has grown a lot since this here map was drawn, but that original market spot, just south of Wall St. (see ye olde dividing line on the map) stands as a testament to the commerce and trade that made New York, in the words of famed explorers, 'the key to the continent.'

There's plenty of comestibles and delectable sundry to be unlocked and gobbled this Sunday, October 25th at the second incarnation of the New Amsterdam Market. The first market was a resounding success; tables were heaped to the breaking point with piles of oysters, sinful sweets, robust meats, and wheels of cheese. This time should be no different... We're bringing along a brand new cache of cheese to whet marketgoers' collective autumnal appetite. From stout and caramelly sheeps' milk cheeses to sweet milky cows' milk tommes to tangy and silky chevres, Saxelby Cheesemongers is putting out the best of the best. Bike, walk, or subway it on down to the waterfront this Sunday and help make this New Amsterdam Market the best yet!

For more information on the market, including special events and a list of vendors, visit newamsterdampublic.org

See you this Sunday!

Community Rocks

Greetings and salutations this Monday morning from Saxelby Cheesemongers! Today's email isn't about the latest and greatest American farmstead cheeses, rather it aims to pay a bit of respect to the community of people who make this crazy cheesy world tick. From the farm to the table, there are a myriad of people at large in this community called cheese that make my life, and I'm sure many of yours too, very special. I'm going to aim to illustrate some of those concentric circles of community, in a much less elaborate (and hopefully more whimsical way) than Dante did.

The first and most important ring in that equation is you. Yes, you. Without cheese lovers out there willing to test their waistlines and brave the potential cholesterol-ic consequences of delicious dairy products (though I am not sure how heartily I believe any of those doctors claims... remember all those demonizing things they said about eggs back in the 90s?) my job would be pretty dang boring. The Essex Market is a testament to community that I live and breathe every day. And let me tell you, sometimes the trade winds are gentle and fresh smelling, and sometimes they are rife with pungent and unsavory storms. No matter what the weather, no matter what the mood, the market is a fantastic place to carry out our day-to-day cheesing. And you all make up the fabric of the shop, weaving together our collective dairy obsession. It's a good club to be a part of. And much tastier than a knitting circle.

Another spherical line can be drawn around our restaurants and chefs. Without their reverent support of farmstead cheese, American cheesemakers wouldn't be nearly as far along as they are today. Because chefs are willing to slice our native fromage up there with the best of the world, cheesemakers and their labors are given their just desserts. Where once it was rare to see an American cheese grace a cheese plate or roving cheese cart, it is now a common occurrence, and thankfully so. We should also thank them heartily for their non-cheese related work too... I for one, would live a much more ascetic life were it not for all the incredible edibles here in New York.

And now we come to the cheesemakers! Duh. The most obvious and crucial circle must be right on the farm. And I'm not talking crop circles. I'm talking groups of people like the Vermont Cheese Council and the New York State Artisan Cheese Guild, bodies that bring cheesemakers together to support one another, troubleshoot, and elevate their craft to new levels of gastronomic delight. Farms like Jasper Hill have taken their love of cheese to astounding heights, going so far as to build infrastructure (read: giant cheese caves) help develop and nurture the craft of cheesemaking through special on-farm workshops, enable young cheesemakers to get into the game, and to take care of the aging, packing and selling of some of Vermont's finest farmstead cheeses. This week on 'Cutting the Curd', my show on the Heritage Radio Network, I interviewed Mateo Kehler, owner and cheesemaker at Jasper Hill Farm about the vision and mission of this burgeoning bovine (ok, ok, and ovine, and caprine) community in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Last but not least, there is the community of cheese sellers across the world. We were lucky enough to spend some time with many of them this past September at the Slow Food Cheese fest in Bra, Italy. Institutions like Neal's Yard Dairy in London, Herve Mons' caves in France, and the Cravero and Guffanti families in Italy are all working toward a common, singular goal: to keep good cheese coming to market, and to promote the agricultural patrimony behind that cheese. We may be the merchants, but I hope that we can also act as translators between the worlds and experiences between the pasture and the plate.

Till next week, love your community. It's where you're at!

Pickle Day is Back!

Saxelby Cheesemongers join the LES Pickle Day!
Sunday, October 4th
11:00 am to 4:30 pm (we'll be pickling from 11:00 to 1:30)
Municipal Parking Lot just south of Delancey, between Essex and Ludlow

After traipsing around Europe for the past week and a half, it's good to come home to a local yokel gastronomic fête. The Italians may celebrate the truffle and the snail, but New Yorkers revere the grand cornichon. That's right folks, Pickle Day is right around the corner, and you better all be there this Sunday to munch on all of the fermented concoctions lining the streets of the Lower East Side! Saxelby Cheesemongers, Hot Bread Kitchen, and Rick's Picks are teaming up to give you a one-two-three punch of cheese, tortillas, and of course, pickles.

Pickle Day was started nine years ago by Nancy Ralph, director of the diminutive but fascinating New York Food Museum. Back in the day, the Lower East Side could have been paved with pickles (what a squishy, vinegary affair that would've been!) Ms. Ralph, being the resident culinary historian that she is, wanted to create a festival to pay homage to one of the city's favorite snacks. Each year, Pickle Day grows and grows, and this year has bubbled and fermented to take over the entirety of the parking lot just below Delancey Street between Ludlow and Essex. We'll be taking the early shift this Sunday, cooking up some love at the Rick's Picks tent from 11:00 to 1:30, so come on by and get some grub!

Rick Fields, proprietor and head goof ball behind Rick's Picks put it to us this year to come up with a tasty, savory something or other to show off his latest pickle, Handy Corn. And just what is Handy Corn, you may ask... Nothing more and nothing less than a delicious pickled corn relish: sweet, vinegary, and laden with that magic combo of aromatic spices that set all of Rick's Picks a head above your average gherkin.

For this year's Pickle Day, we decided that we'd pit corn against curds, smush it all between a coupla Hot Bread Kitchen Tortillas and make a quesadilla like none other. In a bout of recipe testing last night, the thumbs were all pointing skyward for this cheesy, toasty, pickley treat. Just in case you can't join us for the most mouth puckering celebration of the year, here is the key to making the perfect Handy Corn Cheese Quesadilla... Happy munching and hope to see you Sunday!

Saxelby Cheesemongers' Handy Corn Quesadillas

You will need:

1 8 oz container of cheese curds
1 package Hot Bread Kitchen corn tortillas
1 jar of Rick's Picks Handy Corn
a bit of butter

Toast tortillas in a dry, medium-hot skillet. Toast tortilla for 30 seconds, then flip and toast the other side. Put toasted tortillas on a plate and cover with a towel to keep them warm.

When all tortillas are toasted, butter your skillet, lay one tortilla down, cover with a modest (or not so modest depending on how cheesy you feel!) handful of cheese curds.

Spoon one generous spoonful of Handy Corn atop the curds and cover with second tortilla.

Toast quesadilla over low-medium heat (covering the skillet if you want meltier cheese quicker) one one side for about 1-2 mins. Flip the quesadilla and toast the other side.

Last but not least, sprinkle with a dose of Tabasco for a little extra kick!

If only all dinners were this easy....

Till next week! See you on the Lower East Side this Sunday for some fermented fun!

Benvenutti a Tutti da Bra!

This week's dispatch is being spirited to your inboxes across an ocean and a few countries in between. Saxelby Cheesemongers hit the road last week to come to the small, lovely town of Bra, in the Piedmont region of Italy. The area is home to a great many culinary delights including raw Piemontese sausage, noble wines, white truffles, and humble snails. Or as the Italians would say, le lumache.

It seems fitting that the snail has a privileged place in local gastronomy, as Bra is also the birthplace of Slow Food. Some odd years ago an incredible man named Carlo Petrini turned his hometown upside down when he decided to start the incredible, benevolent organization we know as Slow Food. From that man and his passion for food that is good, clean, and fair, sprung an organization that now spans the globe, touching places as large as New York City and as small as the clusters of islands that pepper the coast of Greece.

Every two years, grazie a Slow Food, the cosmos converge, the Milky Way of course taking center stage, and the festival we call Cheese pops up in the town of Bra like a cluster of mushrooms after a delicate rain. What is Cheese? Nothing more and nothing less than an international gathering of cheesemakers, cheesemongers , affineurs, and cheese lovers. Over the course of four days, Bra is filled up to the gills with revelry, white tents line the streets and colonize the piazze as hundreds of thousands of hungry turophiles descend and sample cheeses that range from the sublime to the downright strange.

I myself ate what some might consider an embarassing amount of cheese at Cheese. Were I weighing it in on a scale I might have fainted as the total racheted up over the course of the weekend. Thankfully I'm much too disorganized to do anything of the sort, and know that in the end I can just chock it all up to a hefty dose of R&D for my own internal cheese file. I ate blues so moldy that I was hard pressed to find a spot of white, multi-tiered local cheeses shaped like wedding cakes, creamy and tangy mozzarella di bufala, raw goats' milk cheeses from England of unsurpassed delicacy, light pasta filata cheese from Japan dipped in soy sauce, fine stout mountain cheeses from Bavaria and the Jura that were alternately robust and steak-like to fruity, sweet, and caramel-esque. The list goes on and on... Sitting here in the piazza looking over at all the tents, I am already nostalgic, hoping 2011 will come tumbling through the hourglass a bit quicker than it should!

This year was the first year that American cheeses were represented at Cheese, and what a grand success it was! By Sunday afternoon, with more than a full day of fromaging left to do, the Americans sold out of every last morsel of cheese there was to be had. Pleasant Ridge Reserve was sliced and diced and cleared out by Saturday afternoon, Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawks were scooped up by the dozen, Vermont Butter and Cheese Coupoles dotted many an Italian dinner table, and blues like Jasper Hill's Bayley Hazen and Rogue Creamery's Blue made even the most devout of gorgonzola-ites swoon.

For many Cheese-goers, it was the first time they tasted American cheese. French, Italian, British, German, Swiss, Dutch, Japanese swung by the American counter, taking it all in (literally) and praising the fine and tasty work of our cheesemakers. I had the good fortune to be on the stand for a while, slicing up bits of Twig Farm's Goat Tomme, speaking my pigeon Italian with the locals. I asked them again and again, is this the first time you've had American cheese? And throughout the day the answer was a resounding yes. Then I'd ask them, well, what do you think? And as only true Italians can do, they'd do a little shake of the hand or a little lilt of the head that speaks volumes. Buonissimo! Was the unanimous decree.

We'll have to wait two years for the next Cheese, but in the meantime can bask in the immense satisfaction of having American cheeses on the Slow Food map in Bra! As soon as I come home, there'll be a mess of pictures to check out on the photo section of our website. Till next week, eat lots of American cheese and be happy!

Henry Hudson Makes a Market!

New Amsterdam Market is back in action, just in time to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage to the river that now bears his name. Join Saxelby Cheesemongers this Sunday at the old Fulton Fish Market for New Amsterdam's inaugural market of the season!

New Amsterdam Market
Sunday, September 13th
11:00 am to 4:00 pm
South Street (btw Beekman and Peck Slip)

It's easy to forget what made this little island such a compelling place to explorers when Hudson sailed into the harbor 400 years ago. The Hudson River, broad and wide and reaching deep into the land was called the key to the continent by some. The location of the island of Manhattan, sandwiched between the Hudson and the East River (a salty tidal strait) was an ideal place for settlement and trade because it had one of very few harbors that did not freeze completely over in the wintertime.

The southernmost tip of Manhattan was the first part of the island to be settled, and had all the 17th century frills... a fort, a wall, a smattering of homes and small businesses, and of course, a market district. Since the 1600's, the South Street Seaport area has been the city's marketplace. It has known many incarnations, most recently being home to the famous and sometimes infamous Fulton Street Fish market. The culture of the marketplace, its vendors, their sweat, the near-constant movement of goods, the haggling, the wheeling and dealing, the conviviality of it all are have smoothed and weathered the cobblestones, literally making up the mortar between them.

Today, that part of the city floats in a rather uncertain place. The fish market has moved north to the Bronx, there are historic ships moored at the docks, and there is still commerce, though confined to an odd shopping mall that juts out into the river on Pier 17. The empty market stalls and cobbled streets are in limbo, in search of a purpose that will do justice to their history and revive the neighborhood. What better way to do that than a public market? Public markets have served as gathering places since time immemorial, places for exchange of goods, but also places of great social and civic importance.

Were New Amsterdam Public to achieve its intention of establishing a permanent public market, it would turn New Yorkers collective pantries around. Locally sourced products, animal, vegetable, and mineral would be available to urbanites, sourced and sold by expert purveyors. The streets would spring to life each morning as the merchants built up displays spilling over with their wares. The subsequent bustle of shoppers, watchers, and people from all walks of life would swell through the streets and eddy at the end of each day, mimicking the tides that make the rivers flow.

Join us at the Seaport this Sunday to eat, shop, and reinvigorate the public market!

Till next week....