Two distinct American Made Cheeses

If you were asked which U.S. states produce the most cheese you would probably say Wisconsin, which prides itself on being the “dairy state”. Want to guess which state comes in a close second? California!  Wisconsin makes close to 3 billion pounds of cheese each year.  California cranks out about 2 1/2 billion pounds.  I’m sure right now you are thinking, “Burt, please tell me where P.A. fits in.” Well, we are a paltry 7th at slightly more than 4 hundred thousand lbs, most of these are what are considered artisanal or farmstead (and typically very good).  Today we are going to taste two award winning cheeses: one is a very well known California goat cheese and the other, a much less widely distributed Wisconsin-made cow’s milk product.  While we are sampling the Cypress Hill Humboldt Fog, I highly recommend all of their cheese - they make quite a wide variety.  Salemville only makes blue cheeses and all are very good. 

 Humboldt Fog ( Cypress Hill, California, goats milk, pasteurized, vegetable rennet)

Humboldt Fog’s distinctive line of tasteless ash through the center is an homage to Morbier, but only in appearance as that French classic is made from cow’s milk and has a totally different taste. Humboldt Fog is noted for the smooth feel of the buttermilk used in its manufacture. When young it is milky, almost creamy. As it ages, it become less moist but you will probably eat it soon after you bring it home. It has a nice, not very assertive tang, even somewhat citrusy. It is a very pleasant addition to a salad, especially if you add some pieces of honey roasted almonds as the contrast of sweet and tart is delightful.  Or you could just pick up some good honey at Creekside to drizzle over your cheese.  It loves being accompanied by a not-too-hoppy IPA or a wheat beer. As for wines, any not too sweet, not too dry, white works well. In keeping with its place of birth, a California Sauvignon Blanc is a perfect pairing. 

Salemville Smokehouse Blue (Salemville, Wisconsin, cow’s milk, pasteurized, vegetable rennet)

The name says it all. This is a smoked blue cheese but not all smoked blue cheeses are created equal. While you certainly will taste the applewood smoke that the cheese has been exposed to, it doesn’t hit your taste buds like some of the European smoked cheeses. By and large this is consistent with Americans’ preference for subtlety in our cheese. The cows are raised on hormone free feed by Amish farmers who also produce the cheese using non-electric means; it is actually handmade. Smokehouse Blue has a rich and creamy texture, it has a savory, tangy and earthy flavor with consistent veining running throughout.  Like any quality blue cheese it goes well crumbled on a salad.  Try stuffing the cap of large portobello mushroom with some or just spread it on a piece of crusty bread. I think it goes well with Pinot Noir but most real experts believe that blue cheeses require a heavy sweet wine like Port or Sherry. Manishewitz Malaga anyone? 

How CreekSide EasyShop Accounts Work

EasyShop makes grocery shopping easy!  It's safe, you decide how much or little to put in to your account, and it's available to everyone in the family!

Account holders need a member number to access and use EasyShop, so it is available only to CreekSide Co-op members and staff.

Once you have a member number, setting up your EasyShop account is easy. Simply tell the cashier that you would like to set up an EasyShop account, and how much you will put in to the account to start. Members decide how much money they want available in their accounts. You can write a check or use cash and the cashier will make a "deposit" into your existing member account that you can use whenever you shop at CreekSide.

All family members can use the account as long as they have a CreekSide fob with your membership barcode on the back. You can get as many fobs as you need by letting the front desk know.

Each time you use EasyShop you will get two receipts: one is your regular receipt with purchase information and the second receipt has your member ID and your EasyShop balance on it. You can keep track of your balance with this receipt and make deposits whenever you need.  All the money in your EasyShop account is available to you at any time.

Also, the co-op is running two new weekly member raffles! One is an EasyShop Raffle which all members can enter simply by dropping your EasyShop receipt into the Raffle box at the front desk.

EasyShop is a great way to help the co-op save money on credit and debit card merchant fees, and a great way for families to shop easily with no worries.

CREEKSIDE WEEKLY MEMBER RAFFLES

You have two ways to win:

1. Weekly Spend Raffles

•  Spend $75 in a week, get a chance to win a featured CreekSide Co-op product
• Spend $100 in a week, get a chance to win $25
• Spend $125 in a week, get a chance to win $50

1. EasyShop Raffle

 Every time you use EasyShop, get a chance to win a featured CreekSide Co-op product.

 REMEMBER TO TELL THE CASHIER YOUR MEMBER NUMBER EVERY TIME YOU SHOP AT CREEKSIDE!

Raffle cycle runs Monday to Sunday. Drawings occur every Monday.

Cash winnings go into your EasyShop account.

Weekly Spend Raffles

The Weekly Spend Raffles are a fun way to encourage the spending that we need from our shoppers for CreekSide to be financially stable.

CreekSide currently has 1800 active member shoppers. CreekSide would cover all of its expenses, including its debt obligations:

• If 960 shoppers spend $125 per week, OR

• If 1200 shoppers spend $100 per week, OR

• If 1600 shoppers spend $75 per week.

If you spend $75 or more, you will have a chance to win a featured CreekSide Co-op product. If you spend $100 or more, you will have a chance to win one $25 cash prize. If you spend $120 or more, you will have a chance to win one $50 cash prize.

Weekly spending will be tracked by the store through your member number (which is why the raffle has to be for members only). A CreekSide employee will randomly pull a winner for the Weekly Spend Raffle on Monday based on member spending during the prior Monday to Sunday. Winners will be notified after the drawing via email and/or telephone. Cash winnings will go into a member Easy Shop account.

EasyShop Raffle

CreekSide currently spends $1500 per week on fees for credit and debit card transactions. EasyShop makes it easy for members to pay by cash or check and eliminate those fees. The EasyShop Raffle rewards members who help CreekSide by using EasyShop. To set up an EasyShop account, visit the customer service counter and deposit a balance using cash or check. For more details, see http://creekside.coop/easy-shop/.

Every time you use EasyShop, your receipt will go into a box at the front desk, which becomes your ticket for the raffle. Each receipt entered into the basket is one chance to win a featured CreekSide Co-op product. For example, if you use EasyShop five times in a week (no matter how much you spend), you will have five chances to win.

A CreekSide employee will draw an EasyShop Raffle winner from the basket every Monday from the previous Monday to Sunday. Winners will be notified after the drawing via email and/or telephone.

Due to Pennsylvania gaming regulations, the cash value of the CreekSide Co-op featured product must be less than the total weekly spend of the winner.

Members will be entered into all raffles for which they qualify.

Each member household may only win one raffle per week.

The Delightful Tallegio - A Soft Italian Cheese

One of the real delights of being a “cheese head,” or un tete de fromage, which is very bad French, is the sheer wonderment of tasting new cheeses or reacquainting yourself with some old favorites. By modest estimate there are perhaps as many as 1000 varieties of cheese made throughout the world, and new ones are introduced constantly. Some are made in gigantic factories where tons of cheeses are churned out each and every year. It is estimated that Americans consume close to 25 pounds of cheese annually, but alas, a good amount of that is rubbery mozzarella on pizzas or that abomination called 'cheese food', which might be neither cheese nor a food.

There are others, of course, that are literally hand made by dairy farmers who raise their own cows, sheep or goats and lovingly produce small quantities of what is often called “artisanal” or “farmstead” cheese. Some products made by the big manufacturers are quite good and there are hand made cheeses crafted by 5th generation dairy farmers that are simply awful. The only way to tell what you like best then, is to taste a lot of cheese and I am happy to assist you in that undertaking. After all, I’m not called the 'Big Cheese' for no reason.

While there are a great number of varieties and cheese makers often come up with unique names for their cheeses like 'Lamb Chopper' and 'Stinking Bishop' there are actually only six definitive categories of cheese. These , somewhat loosely, are fresh (cottage cheese, cream cheese), blue (Roquefort, Gorgonzola), washed rind, (Epoisse, Tallegio), hard,(Parmigano, cheddar), soft (Brie, Feta) and pulled (mozzarella and string cheese). There are sub-categories like semi-soft and semi-hard as well but, for the sake of discussion or if you want to impress your friends with your cheese knowledge, let’s say there are only six. Creekside carries a representative selection of all of these categories and today I’m going to tell you about a cheese that I often serve and I’ve yet to have any complaints. And, if you know my friends you will understand that we are talking about cheese with wide appeal.

One of my all time favorites is a rustic looking block of cheesy delight called Tallegio. Tallegio is a washed rind cows milk cheese made in Lombardy in northern Italy bordering on Switzerland. This location may explain why Tallegio is not typical of most Italian cheese. Washed rind or 'smeared' cheeses are anointed with liquids including beer, wine, brandy and in this case salt water. This process increases moisture, makes the cheese more supple, adds color, flavor and aroma. All washed rind cheeses are, well, let us say fragrant. Some, like the German Munster (not to be confused with the American-made Muenster) or the French Epoisse, are absolutely stinky and are an acquired taste. But, while Tallegio is certainly pungent it shouldn’t force anyone into nose-holding. And like nearly all washed rind cheese the taste is nowhere as strong as the smell. Unless the cheese has been aged much too long no one should find the scent of Tallegio off-putting in anyway. The bottom line is that Tallegio tastes really great. It has a very pleasant creamy mouth feel and the chewy rind is edible if you choose to eat it. Tallegio has been described as meaty, fruity, tangy and bold, although I’m not sure how a cheese acts 'bold'. The rind is very often mottled and the paper wrapping usually sticks to the rind so be prepared to gently scrape it off if you are planning on eating the rind as I do.

In America, Tallegio is almost always pasteurized and uses animal rennet. It melts well but I suggest you remove the rind of you are going to melt your cheese. A while ago I put some on a piece of crusty bread with some of Creekside’s Nova salmon, a few capers and accompanied it with a crisp pinot grigio. mmmmm

CreekSide Membership - A Great Investment

We’ve been thinking, and hearing, about membership lately.  Why become a member of CreekSide Co-op? Many still mistakenly think it works like a membership in a warehouse club, where you pay your annual membership fee just so you can shop.

Membership at CreekSide is very different.  Membership in a co-op means ownership.  You don’t pay an annual fee - you invest in your community store, with a lifetime commitment of $400 that you can pay over 8 years - just $50 per year.  This equity that you invest in the store is used to fund our operations.

Perhaps even more surprising is that CreekSide is a great investment - you can get back well over $50 per year!  Use your monthly member discount on a $100 shopping trip and save $60 each year, plus savings on member specials every day.  When the co-op is profitable, you’ll receive a dividend proportional to what you spent during the year - like a retroactive additional discount.  All this in addition to conveniences like cash back at the register when you use your check card, check cashing, EasyShop, order by the case, and more.

So if you’re not a member, consider joining today.  If you are a member, consider increasing your equity, ideally to the full $400 level.  Most of all, continue to let your friends and neighbors know that being a CreekSide member is a smart investment in our community, and a smart investment for your pocketbook!