News and blog

www.canaljunctioncheese.com

On Sunday, we here at Canal Junction were featured in the local paper in the Living section. It was a great article done by a wonderful reporter. Thank You, Georgia for the article.

 From that article there have been questions as to why I am not selling at any local markets or stores. Before you go off on me let me say that I have to keep a business head on me. I can not let emotion rule me, or the business. Banks don’t care about emotion. But please don’t take this as all I am trying to do is make millions. If I wanted to do that I would have stuck with my original plan to work for the Wrangler clothing company in their marketing division.

 First in order for me to attend a market I have to be able to pay for the time that the person spends there even if it is me. My time cost something. If I am at a market there is something back at base that is not getting done. If I send someone there I pay them, a fair wage. Then you have to figure in the time it takes to get ready and also the cost of the product being sold. So would it be nice if I was at the local market? Sure, but I have to put the business brain on not the emotional one.

 Second, selling through local stores. I actually did when we first started. For those who are not into retail you may not realize this. A retailer is not about selling product, it is about moving a certain amount of product off that shelf to make money. Retailers are not product sellers, they are shelf space renters. Those who have product at eye level pay more for that shelf than those at the bottom or top of the shelving. Each linear foot of shelf space in a store is equal to a certain amount of money. If you (the one who is putting a product on the shelf) can not move the required amount of product through that shelf the retailer will replace it with something that will. This is the game that I am NOT in. I am not a big, standardized cheese plant.

 Am I against dealing with local retail? No, but understand I am not a distributor, I am not a huge corporation, I can not deliver to all your stores, my cheeses come in random weight packages, and it is a living product that requires more care than something in a vacuum sealed bag. It is alive and needs nurturing. Cheese tastes the best when it is cut right off the original chunk that it is in.

 Which brings me to my next item. We are now offering the cheese cut to order here at the farm. For those who have gone to a cheese counter where there are cheeses galore you know what this is like. For those who have not had that experience allow me to try and put it into words. At a cheese counter there are many different cheeses setting there. Displayed as the whole, maybe cut in half to see the interior, you can sample it before you buy it. When you want to purchase it you tell the cheesemonger how much you want. They cut is right off the chunk, wrap it up in paper that nurtures the living product inside it, weight it and then you get to enjoy the best tasting cheese around. This is what we are now offering. We still have the pre cut packages but for those that want it fresh, you have that option. My personal opinion is to have it fresh, it just tastes better.

Do not forget, we have retail here at the farm. Hours: Tuesday 1-6, Thursday 10-6, Saturday 8-noon

Helping you to understand more about what we do here,

The Head Cheese, Brian

That song started going through my head last week as things seemed to be running out of control. Like the saying goes, “when it rains it pours”. I had a new employee helping me in the cheese plant and aging rooms and one working on getting cheese cut-up for orders and markets. I felt like I was running in every direction at once making sure that the vat was on schedule, cheese was pulled for cutting, the checklist printed off to pack for market, and making sure that the cheese in the aging room was getting worked properly. So as I was running around worrying about everything and was it getting done to my liking the song “Breaking up is hard to do” started going through my head. In retrospect it was like breaking up with someone you have been dating for a long time. You were very comfortable with them, knew them, how they worked, their little quarks, how to make them shine at their best. This is what it was like for me with the cheese. I have been doing pretty much everything myself since we started in ’07. I knew how to keep the vat right on schedule and what to do if I was behind or going to fast. I was running the aging rooms making sure my “babies” were doing what they needed to be doing. I was then pulling cheese, cutting them and getting it ready for orders. Last summer I had someone cutting cheese but I was making sure that they were doing it properly. Now I needed to concentrate on the vat but needing everything else done because market was that afternoon along with orders that needed to be shipped. So that started my breaking up with everything that I was doing and letting someone else do it. There comes a time in every small business where outside help is needed to keep the owner from killing themselves. That time seems to have come for me here. It is nice to have someone else to rely on but I am still holding onto everything else. I am learning that breaking up is hard to do. I tend to run a little on the perfectionist side at times and this has me wondering if they are doing a good enough job. They are and I am very grateful for all that they do and help me with. They put up with my craziness and do a wonderful job with my instructions. It’s growing pains and hopefully that means good for us.   

Is translated into their milk in as little as twenty minutes. Did you know that? I didn’t know that what a cow smells ends up in the milk. I knew that what a cow eats will come through the milk, but what she smells? Come on, I told myself while sitting in class listening to the instructor talking about milk and flavors. It’s true, which would explain why some of my aged cheddars that are aged in a plastic bags have turned out so….. well, interesting in smell and flavor. The study was done at the University of Vermont where they had cows breathe in certain smells, milked them and then flavored the milk (drank the milk to see what it taste like). This brings up an interesting bit about consuming artisan cheeses, especially those that are farmstead. I had sold some cheese to a retail store that called me some time after they had purchased the cheese and said that the cheese was so bad that they could not get past the smell that it produced and was even worse when it was eaten. Through the conversation the retail owner told me that they had purchased cheese from some of the reputable cheese makers in the U.S. and that they never have had anything as bad as mine. What do you say to something like that? That is where knowing your craft comes into action. You see, I make all my cheeses from 100% grassfed, raw milk. The milk is never subjected to any temperature abuse like the majority of cheese milk is. Yes pasteurizing the milk does affect the flavor of it and what is made out of it. Because I use that kind of milk the flavors are going to be more pronounced, especially with the 100% grassfed. As soon as the cows get out on pasture their milk flavor and composition changes. It is a night and day difference in not only the taste and smell, but also the feel of the curd when I am making the cheese. So how do you respond to something like that? You educate them on what they are getting, does that excuse the flavors and smell? No, is there anything that I can do? Sure, not make that kind of cheese, but since cheddar seems to be what Americans want, it is what is made. If you go to the grocery and buy a Tillamook or Cabot cheddar cheese chances are that the milk that is used in the cheese came from a cow that has a fairly consistent diet. This diet, typically consisting of corn silage, and other fermented feed stuffs, allows for a consistent final product day in and day out. Not only that the bigger cheese producers grade there cheese. In class a grader came in and talked about what he does and had samples from bitter to sweet, to catty (yes that is a technical name for a flavor). Due to the grading of the cheese they are able to tell if a cheese will age out or if it needs to be sold earlier. They also are grading the cheese at varying ages. That way there is a consistent taste to the product on the shelf. So what am I getting at here…  Whatever happened to changes? I’m not talking huge changes but those subtle changes that keeps food interesting? Are they bad or are they good? I don’t know. I like them it adds to life. Along this path of learning in life, which mine happens to be centered around cheese, that I am on; I have learned that the milk produced here on the farm may not be the best for certain cheeses. That is why we are working on developing cheeses that lend themselves to the kind of milk that we produce; our own originals. So, this summer when you are browsing your local markets try a cheese that is an original. It may surprise you what is in store.

Ramblings from inside the caves

Brian         

The official results from the inaugural Ohio Cheese tasting. (from the IFO website, which hosted the tasting)

IFO OHIO CHEESE TASTING WINNERS!!! THE RESULTS OF THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS ARE IN!!!

Two categories, Favorite Cheese and Favorite Creamery

FAVORITE CHEESE
1: Muleskinner, Canal Junction ----------That’s US!!!!!!!!!!!
2: Jersey Drover, Laurel Valley
3: Joe Peppertome, Fulton Creek

FAVORITE CREAMERY

1: Laurel Valley
2: Lucky Penny
3: Canal Junction

CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED!

So what is ahead for us, we are working on getting either 6 or 8 oz hoops for retail sales. We will still have the bigger wheels. Those are being made for restaurants, food service, places of that nature. So instead of getting just a wedge you will get an entire wheel. This will make for a better experience for your taste buds.

Look for this cheese to be ready late spring early summer.

Keeping you posted here from the aging caves,

Brian

The musings of a cheesemaker. You are probably wondering about the title. "It's only in the Morning”. That is what I told my sister and a friend one day while they were cleaning the house getting it ready for company. I had cheese “aging” in the basement. I first started out aging the blue cheese in the basement until I got my blue cheese aging room up and running. But before that time I had accumulated a fair amount of cheese down there. And like all aging products it took on a certain aroma, but it was only in the morning when the smell was noticeable. Particularly in the fall when the days were warm but the nights cool.  So I was getting picked on for having “sticky” cheese that needed to have something done with it even though I assured them it was doing what it was supposed to do. Thankfully today I have a blue room along with the rest of the aging rooms behind the cheese plant and not in the house. This alleviated any potential family strife. So with that, the official title of my blog here is “It’s only in the Morning”
 
On to other things, the new cheese now officially has a name. No it’s not “No Name”, it is, after much debate and ponderings…………Mule Skinner. Yep that is right, Mule Skinner. Sure Mule Skinner sounds like it may mean something along the lines of a stubborn old guy who is grumpy, mumbles a lot and would rather keep to themselves than being the life of the party. That is what is portrayed in the media but in reality Mule Skinners were people who had a genuine love for the animals that they worked with and cared for. Those animals were their life, their family. Plus when it comes to needing a name that people can pronounce and remember, Mule Skinner just draws your attention and curiosity. “What is a Mule Skinner cheese?” Also in keeping with the canal theme that we are working off of it just fit right in there because to run a boat on a canal it had to propelled by something and back then it was mules.
 
Keeping you posted from here at Canal Junction

It's up and running. Be the first to test it out and see how it works. All orders are going to be shipped via U.S. Mail at the current time. We are using just one size of box currently. So to get the best value for your shipping we can ship up to 10 lbs in one box. If you are interested in wheels, half wheels, or quater wheels email with what you are interested in.

Brian

Well, it's time for an update on the status of the Burr Oak. I am now producing two batches a year of the Burr Oak, one in May and another in September. The way that it is being recieved I may up the amount that I produce. Why? because the September batch is all gone. You are welcome to put an order in for the May batch. As always it will be a first come, first serve basis. Thank you for all your interest in the cheese.

On the other hand the sales of the cheese keeps growing. This has created an interesting set of challenges for us here at Canal Junction Farmstead Cheese. We are trying hard to produce enough cheese to have a big enough inventory to keep it on the shelves all year. But, be forewarned, we may run out of some of the cheeses and not have them until next October (that would be the longer aged ones). We will have next years new cheeses ready by June.

Brian

Yep, I had it and enjoyed it too. Where? you ask, Alanas Food & Wine in Columbus. www.alanas.com  They are currently featuring the Burr Oak, Black Swamp Gouda, and Lock 21. It is just north of campus on High St. (west side of the road, parking in rear) Alana is doing a fantastic job with the presentation of the cheese, it is very simple but, it is warmed to room temp, no butter fat glistening off of the cheese like it has been sitting out for a long time. Oh and did I forget to mention, the food is great also. I was there last Friday. It was really neat, for lack of better words, to experience it.

On a more serious note. Things are starting to slow down in some areas around here but still busy as ever. I am trying to keep up with cheese inventory and get some ahead so that I can get some aged cheeses for you all. I now have to look at how much I need to tie me over until next June. Yep that's right, June. Why? because once January hits I will not make cheese until late March. So a BIG Thank You to everyone who has supported us in the past and continues to support us.

Brian

Life has an interesting way of going from a nice workable, doable, pace, to insanely crazy in a heart beat. This week I am adventuring off to the American Cheese Society Conference and Convention. My original plans were just to go, learn, and enjoy, but a last minute decision has me now participating in the "Meet the Cheesemaker" night. It is a night were conference attendees get to sample cheeses and meet the cheesemaker. Then after this week I am going to the great North Country for a week of relaxation, never to return again, as I tell mom.

Along with my travel plans, the BIG news is that the cheeses are starting to get around. My Canal Junction Blue was featured at an all Ohio dinner. 

This is the salad that they had at the meal that was featuring the Canal Junction Blue cheese.

This is the menu for the dinner that featured the Canal Junction Blue cheese. Reading is makes me hungry for some good, locally produced food. Yum.

B