Author Topic: Article in the NY Times...  (Read 2250 times)

mtncheesemaker

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Tomer1

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Re: Article in the NY Times...
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2011, 09:12:10 PM »
To my understanding the proffesion came about when some cheesemakers simply didnt have the space hense funds to construct a cheese celler, so the cheeses were put into someone's care and when they were market ready the middle man would take his cut sort of speak.
This makes perfect sense since the cheesemaker also has to herd the cows\sheep\goats,milk the animal AND make the cheese and still get a few hours of sleep.

Is it necesery today when you can put out a loan against a successful business to construct a cave or simply build an artificial one, absolutly not and I agree with the monger - today its just a way to inflate the prices.
Making hand made cheeses even more "high end" and expenssive.

LittleSeed

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Re: Article in the NY Times...
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2011, 02:15:59 PM »
Hey guys!
My husband sent me this article earlier this week. I liked the article and think the continuing buzz about artisanal cheese can only be good for small scale producers that should be supported. However, I was left feeling that for the average person reading the Times, there might be some confusion as to the import of aging cheese.

This article is questioning the value of the middlemen, and their affinage of the product they're buying in. It does at all acknowledge the affinage that is required to finish a cheese and differentiate between necessary aging and "extra care" aging. When a middleman is buying in cheese at it's finished stage, then yes - I agree and think this "extra care" is just a way to inflate prices. When the middleman, such as Jasper Hill, is buying in a cheese just out of the mold (as they do with many small cheesemakers in VT) and taking complete responsibility for the extra important step of proper aging, then I think the price may be justified.

As a younger person with modest savings looking to build a creamery, I can say that the cost of building an ideal aging cave along with the cost of maintaining the correct ambient is a lot. I've met Marisa Mauro from Ploughgate Creamery and she says she wouldn't have been able to get her business off the ground without Jasper Hill's service.

I was left with the feeling that the article might be more confusing to consumers rather than helpful. Without addressing the affinage that is required to produced aged cheeses, I felt that it cast doubt on the importance of ALL affinage. That's just silly - we all know how important that part is!

Tomer1

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Re: Article in the NY Times...
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2011, 07:36:04 PM »
I agree, with the help of someone like this you can produce much more then you were ever able to age meaning you might be able to increase your profite all though your saling your cheeses for I suppose 50-60% lower then retail if not more.
With the hours saved each day doing the affinage and caring of the aging cheeses you can increase your cow\goat\sheep herd and invest your time in better milk.

On the flip side ,I think affinage has alot to do with the artisinal side of things, otherwise what is the different between buying the young cheese from a small creamery with 500L vat Vs a large creamy with 10,000L vats? the process is the same just with the mechanical aid of machines to reduce the pysical lebor.
So alot of the hand made cheese artisinal aspect of this business is gone using this.