This article originally appeared in The Ontario Farmer, December 21 2004
Reproduced with permission: © Copyright 2004, Sun Media Corporation
What's a publishing executive to do if she wants to make goat's cheese, but has nowhere to turn? Why, form a cheese society, of course!
"The whole thing started during a course on cheesemaking with 32 cheesemakers. I took the course, and over a beer in the pub, an association was born," explains Petre Cooper, the new society's new chair.
Cooper runs a $60 million textbook publishing business by day, but on the week-ends she's an aspiring artisanal cheesemaker, with a farm in Prince Edward County.
"I did some investigation, talked to OMAF and others. On March 20, of 2004 we invited about 56 organizations to be represented at an industry meeting and got 36 people...Out of that membership, we elected a working group." By July the society had secured $60,000 in startup funds from CanAdapt for a web site and part-time executive director.
By September, it was signing up members.
The Ontario Cheese Society is "modeled after the American Cheese Society," Cooper explained. "It's not just cheesemakers, but anyone who's an enthusiast."
In fact, there are four membership categories: enthusiasts, cheesemakers producing up to 5,000 kg, cheesemakers producing between 5,001 and 20,000 kilograms, and supporting industry members. Each pays a different membership fee.
By the end of its first annual meeting on Nov 26, the society had 17 enthusiasts, nine small cheesemakers and one large one, as well as two supporting industry members.
The cross sections of members allows it "to bring together artisan, farmstead and specialty cheesemakers and to connect them with other people such as chefs, cheese sellers, food writers and all lovers of good cheese," according to its web site www.ontariocheese.org.
Its goals are networking, advocacy, education of members and promotion of its cheeses.
"There aren't very many artisanal cheesemakers in the province at the moment," says Stephanie Diamant, a pioneer of artisanal sheep's cheese.
Diamant, who farms near Shelburne, looks with envy at Quebec, which has such an healthy industry it can publish a glossy brochure in French and English, mapping out 40 locations for food tourists to go and sample cheeses made from cow, goat and sheep's milk.
"Right now there are a lot of Quebec cheeses that are brought into Ontario because they are unique and special," said Diamant. She believes that Ontario cheesemakers can create the same excitement if they build on pride of place, celebrate their differences and connect with the Slow Food movement.
But that same uniqueness and flavour requires better links along the food chain. "We're not necessarily trying to produce a uniform product all the time. So you want to be able to communicate to the retailer that today the sheep were eating something different and the cheese tastes different, and that is why."
The cheese society elected its first slate of officers at the annual meeting. In addition to Cooper and Diamant, they include George Taylor, of C'est Bon Cheese in St. Marys, who is secretary-treasurer; Larry Kupecz, of Burgessville, the president of the Ontario Dairy Sheep Association; Vanessa Taylor, a milk quality assurance program lead for OMAF and cheese enthusiast; Jim Keith of Back Forty Artisanal Cheese in Lanark, Garry Claassen, of Teeswater, a goat milk producer and chair of Mornington Dairy Co-op, as well as Kathy Guidi, an artisan cheese marketer from Toronto.
The annual meeting was held in conjunction with the Food and Wine Expo and included high profile speakers like Gina Mallet who is on tour with her book Last Chance to Eat: the fate of taste in a fast food world, and Anita Stewart of Cuisine Canada, who is an activist for developing local foods.
"Several of our cheesemakers were able to provide samples, as well as sell some of our product. The response was incredible." said Diamant.
© Copyright 2004, Ontario Farmer Unauthorized reproduction or Web posting prohibited.