Ca Artisan Cheese Festival - A Review

[Dommy]

First off, thanks so much @robert and @lethekom for you recs! We just got back and decided to start a new thread specifically for the California Artisan Cheese Festival. Will talk about other nearby places we ate as well.

I just adore cheese. There is always some kind snackin’ cheese in my cheese and wine drawer in my fridge (and I bought a fridge specifically so I could have this drawer) and some fancy crackers in my cupboad (my biggest love as of late has been Gusto’s house made crostinis. I so wish they would list them on Locale… I asked… I hold out hope.).

In the before-times, I made a pilgrimage to the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival and it was just… THE BEST… I had planned to attend this one in 2020, but you know. I did attend the 2021 virtual and it was just awesome. The cheese box they sent was just UNREAL.

So as soon as the tickets went on sale, I started to plot our trip. The whole event is over the course of three days. There is a quite a bit of programming to choose from. From pairings to factory tours to goat yoga. We knew we wanted to spend a good deal of time with family, so we didn’t over schedule ourselves. We opted for the Cheese Crawl and then the main event. The marketplace.

The Cheese Crawl was the day before the main event. It took place at the Barlow in Sebastapol, an outdoor shopping complex with various restaurants, bars and even a distillery. It had a great concept… They paired up 11 of the major cheesemakers with one of the businesses at the Barlow and together they would do a pairing…

Bellwether Farms + Acre Pizza…

I love Belwether Farms Ricotta… it’s just about the only kind I use. White pies are my absolute favorite pizzas and this one was inspired. Super thin slices of lemon just worked so well with the asparagus and the ricotta. OMG. I want someone to make this pie again!!

Cofield Cheesemakers

The Barlow was also home to Wm Cofield Cheesemakers so it was like getting a mini factory tour as they were showing us how they prepped their cloth bound cheddar! Their tastes were the Curd and then the Aged cheddar… The Baby and the Grown Up! Brilliance.

There were many other varied tastes, very generous servings by lots of the vendors and hosts.

And so many cute puppies!!!

The event was two hours and we just made it to all the stops!

Now we were ready for the main event the following day!!

[Dommy]

California Artisan Cheese Festival Marketplace.

As I mentioned, in 2017 we took a trip the Vermont Cheesemaker Festival. It was so much fun. It takes place in the fall on this beautiful estate. It’s an indoor and outdoor event and everyone just spreads out and just brings it. There are cooking demos, a wide variety of sampling, big local businesses come out to align with it like King Arthur flour. You can take a look at my short slideshow here. I regret not taking more photos, but I was just so into eveything. It truly was a fun whole day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWnl_HCFCpd/

So on the day of the Marketplace, I was out and ready… We got to the Sonoma State Fairgrounds and there was already a large line waiting for our noon time start (There was an VIP early entry as well)

So despite getting there early… already the exhibit hall was packed… And that was it… it was all just in this exhibit hall. No outdoor area. No real ‘vending’.

And they touted lots of new vendors so everyone was kinda crammed in! Most vendors had just one table to exhibit and sample out all their tastes. Here you can see Valley Ford having it’s award kinda hidden by it’s display. Really kinda sad.

And because it was a cheese festival… the longest lines were of course, for the cheese! The even was supposed to until Noon and 4p. Even before 2p Cypress Grove had already completely run out of their brand new cheese (Meyer Lemon and Honey). They were kinda dumbstruck as everyone was attracted to “new cheese!” but that they didn’t a sample to offer to everyone waiting for in the big long line…

I was SO glad that I went to cheese crawl and got to taste and chat with so many of the cheese makers already. I felt really bad for folks who hadn’t and just had to wait line after line for Marin French… for Beehive… for Cowgirl… etc… etc… Also the lines blocked a lot of the other vendor tables, so we would skip whole sections and because there wasn’t like a program guide, just hoped we hit all of places we hoped would have something that interested us.

Still, with all of that, we had a good time. The vibe was overall good despite being so peopley. We didn’t buy any cheese, but got amazing salsa macha compound butter from Graze and Gather in Oakland (They make their own butter too!) and had a delightful time with the overlooked Casa Grande HS Catering Crew (The High School has a catering program which is so TIGHT, they do catering!). They were feeding us amazing Mac and Cheese made with Beehive promontory

They didn’t have any real programs, just a band. So there was never much a flow of moving people around past the marketplace area, especially as people continued to come in way past 1pm As someone who has worked at BIG events since she was a kid, there was just some glaring things. That I wonder if it was because of the weather. Because it was their first time back. That because they lacked a little more communications. I hope they send out a follow up survey. I’ll be sure to give them my thoughts.

But, although we left way earlier than we thought we would, we did have a good time. Definitely the other folks, the variety of goodies (We bought so many bottles of Shrub and boxes of Toffee!) but both of us felt if you have an option… Vermont is the way to go.

[robert]

We went on a Marin French Cheese tour once.

me: “What’s the difference between your ‘Brie’ and your ‘Camembert’?”

guide: “The box.”