Highlights of the Year In Cheese

Coolea, one of the most delicious cheeses of the year.

It was the year of Goudas.

Every time I turned around, I was nibbling a glorious Dutch treat. My favorites: Coolea, a Gouda from Ireland, and Evalon, a goat Gouda from Wisconsin.

It was the year of Twitter.

Making the Zagat list of foodies to follow was fun, but it was great to discover other cheese geeks like @curdwise, @CheeseboardUK, @cheesechick1, @kasekaiserina, @cheeseandpoetry, @ItsBrieBlog, @Timthecheeseman.

It was the year of the Cheesemonger.

Wherever I looked, the world of the professional cheese handler was getting props. I missed the second annual Cheesemonger Invitational, but I was happy to be at my first American Cheese Society conference, which launched the first ever Cheesemonger Certification Program.

It was the year of babies named after cheese.

Just ask Hunter Fike of Di Bruno Bros. (9^th Street) about his son Jamie Montgomery as you nibble a hunk of Montgomery’s Cheddar. Hunter, might I suggest Strathdon Blue for a potential baby #2?

It was the year of cheese apps.

Pairing apps abound, but I am still looking for the perfect iphone app that allows me to snap a photo of cheese and record notes.

It was the year of aspiring young chesemakers.

When will The New Yorker run its "30 Cheesemakers Under 30" story? Katie Hedrich of LaClare Farms in Chilton, WI made big news when she won the U.S.  Championship Cheese title at the green age of 25. I've got my eye on Lindsay Klaunig, too.

What's in store for 2012? Well, a newly designed site for Madame Fromage, plus a big bash that you're invited to on Jan. 14. Keep your eyes posted for the invite to my Cheese Ball! I'm ready to celebrate three years of blogging in the land of Milk and Brotherly Love. 

Dear readers, what are your highlights, cheese or otherwise?

Cheese and Social Media

Madame Fromage's iphone

For the last three days, I have been holed up at the Poynter Institute in Florida, studying media trends. I can tell you a lot about Twitter demographics and cool projects at NPR (imagine a Pandora for news), but the question that came to mind as I flew home from Saint Petersburg last night was this:

How has social media affected cheese?

Three years ago when I started blogging, Twitter was still an infant, and the iphone had just been born. Here’s the scene today:

Cheese Apps: Through iphones and ipads, we can access scores of cheese-related apps, from beer-and-wine pairing guides to something called Dairy Ping, which allows users to pick up a jug of milk and locate the farm that produced it, along with sanitation information. Two apps stand out:

Fromage ($2.99) by Steve Welch offers descriptions of 750 cheeses and a function that allows you to keep notes on each one. One drawback: the design is lackluster and there is a lot of scrolling to be done.

Cheese Plate ($2.99) by Chronicle Books is essentially a Janet Fletcher hardcover in app form. The photos are gorgeous, and you can pull up a dozen or so cheese plates by theme, then tap the cheeses to learn more info. Pairing notes, however, are very limited. 

What I’d like to see: regional cheese apps with interactive cheese maps that would guide users to local cheesemakers and cheese counters.

Cheese Tweets: Twitter is alive with cheesemongers, bloggers, and lobbying groups. Here are the folks leading active social media campaigns:

Beecher’s (@BeechersNY, @BeechersSeattle)

Culture Magazine (@culturecheese)

Wisconsin Cheese (@WisconsinCheese)

Blogger Kristen Jackson (@ItsBrieBlog)

Bloggers CheeseandChampagne (@curdwise)

Cheesemonger Tim Gaddis of Star Provisions (@TimTheCheeseMan)

InvestinCheese (@investincheese) delivers daily links and top stories.

What I’d like to see: more news from behind the counter. What cheeses are in stock? What cheeses are in season? Why don’t more cheese counters tweet tasting notes?

~

Feeling lost? Don't panic. Over the next few weeks, I'll try to post more about this phenomenon. Until then, here is your assignment: check out some apps, stalk a monger on Twitter, and let me know if you think social media improves your cheese life. For a quick glimpse of cheese talk on Twitter, check out Trendistic. Surely, we can do better than this!