Cheese and Us

We rejoiced when The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses came out in June 2010. For nearly four years we’d followed our curiosity, exploring the many aspects of the phenomenon that is the new American cheese. We tried making cheese at home. We took road trips to cheese museums and tracked the story of American cheese from pre-industrial farms, to crossroads factories, to mega-factories, and back to farmsteads.  We interviewed cheesemakers, cheesemongers, and cheese lovers. The stories we heard along the way became the substance of The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses.

The run-up to publication was exhilarating and intense, with last-minute additions, corrections, and seemingly endless proof readings. Between us we had eight books in print, but in many ways that was the most ambitious and most difficult. But now it was finally in print. It would have a life of its own. We were finished at last!

To our surprise, things turned out differently. As the days and weeks went by, we made new discoveries, met new people, and the stories kept coming. We regretted that the book was finished and that we couldn’t add to it. Now we know that we had misled ourselves into thinking the book was the end of the story. The book, like cheese, came about through a process of fermentation. We discovered that cheese tales were still fermenting in us and that realization led to this blog.

On Random Ferments we report our cheese discoveries and happenings since The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses found itself in print. In a sense the blog is a continuation and supplement to the book. 

We also report here on the other ideas and projects fermenting in us. Perhaps someday they too will age appropriately into books. In the meantime, we enjoy having them bubbling around in our heads and hearts.