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March 24th, 2009
01:30 pm - Working the Cheese Fest
After doing the beer/cheese thing on Saturday, I actually went back to the Artisan Cheese Festival as a vendor on Sunday. It wasn’t awful, but I kinda doubt I’m going to do it again. It may be fun for the other cheese folks to talk directly to the public at a big event, but I get to do that every week.
I was working for Rainbow, but sampling and selling cheese from other cheese folks who couldn’t be there. I didn’t mind the selling. The fact is it’s an honor to sell Franklin Peluso’s cheese: he’s a 3rd generation California cheesemaker and his Teleme is a Northern California tradition. Similarly, selling cheese for Dee Harley so she can tend to the kids* is doing my part to help keep a small cheesemaker visible when she doesn’t have the staff to spread herself so thin. I also got to cover for Sheana’s new “Delice de la Vallee”, the first local goat /cow blend fresh cheese while she was teaching a cheesemaking class. The Fest was well-attended, for about an hour it was actually pretty hard to move inside the booth-filled tent.
Attendees were confused by our booth because everywhere else cheese folks were there representing themselves and instead I had three different companies at one table. I had to make sure to distance myself from the cheesemakers too. For example, Franklin would be too polite to explain the confusion over the name of his cheese the way I did, especially to all the Italian Americans who grew up with it but haven’t been able to find it for awhile. “Peluso’s Teleme is the original name, but Franklin Peluso sold the company awhile back. The new owners didn’t make cheese of the same quality and that’s why it has been hard to find over the last few years. Most stores – including us – discontinued it. Franklin returned to California and started ‘Franklin’s Teleme’ which is the real thing and the one you want.”
Also, some representative from Costco came up to me and wanted Dee Harley’s information. She seemed nice enough until I told her that since Dee was selling mostly off the farm these days -- and was limiting her farmstead dairy to around 200 goats -- that I really doubted she had enough cheese to sell to Costco. “Oh, “she said, “Do you know that? Are you related to her?” Just trying to help you not waste your time, really. Sorry about that.
The most amusing part is that Sheana Davis’s first name is pronounced “Shawna”. All day long people would come by looking for their “friend Sheena”. I would try to correct these folks through example, “No, Shaw-na is teaching a class right now.” But then they started correcting me! One person actually said, “For your information, I believe it’s pronounced ‘Shee-na”. I swear I’m not making this up
Included in the price of admission was a lot of beer and wine sampling so the last hour and a half was filled with placating drunks. “Oh wait! I had this cheese before. But it was harder, a different color and made with cow milk. Why did you stop making that one?”
Unlike a bartender, I did not receive tips for this.
As an attendee I’m sure it’s a great event. What’s not great about being able to taste and buy pretty much all the California hand-made cheeses plus a few rare ones from Oregon and Washington? Plus all you can drink included with admission (and one’s ability to push through crowds)? It’s definitely something worth going to. I love working with the public, I just like my public a little more sober and focused.
*Kids as in “Bleat, bleat!” not “Mommmmmmmmm!”
**If you want to read more about the actual events – and not my whining and complaining – check out Bryce’s blog Canyon of Cheese.
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