New from Toronto

[cheese poet]

Hi Everyone.  Glad I found this page because I'm a cheese fanatic.  People look at me strangely when I describe eating (at least some) cheese as a near orgasmic experience.  I eat loads of cheese - is there such a thing as a cheeseaholic?  I'm a cultural geographer by training and I research the place-based cultural dimensions of cheese and cheese consumption as part of my work - does it get any better?  I also write about cheese. Sometimes in academese for those pesky journals, but I've also recently started a new cheese blog as a more creative outlet.  If you've got a minute, check it out, leave some comments and let me know what you think.

It's at https://cheesepoet.wordpress.com/

[wharris]

"There once was a curd from Nantuckett....."

well, thats all the cheesey poetry i got....

But welcome to the forum!

[goat lady]

nice site

[Cheese Head]

Hello cheese poet and fellw Canuck, welcome to the forum!

Nice site, congrats, going to take me a while to read. I've just added you to our list of blog links. You can also add your website to your profile and your signature line if want ;).

FYI, there is an Ontario Province Board in the Geographic > Canada Boards in case you or anyone has any local type posts.

Looking forward to your input and knowledge and who knows, with time maybe we can convert you from a cheese lover into a cheese lover and maker!

[Captain Caprine]

Cheese poet,
Hello and welcome to the forum.  Looking forward to some of your musings.
CC

[chilipepper]

Hi and welcome to the forum as well.  I look forward to keeping up with your site.  Looks pretty interesting!

Ryan

[Cartierusm]

Welcome.

[cheese poet]

Thanks everyone.  I'm looking forward to learning more about all things cheese.  Can't believe I didn't come across this board before now.

[DeejayDebi]

Hello Cheese poet.

You may be just what I am looking for. Looks like John is also from Canada so you will both know what I am talking about. They make some wonderful cheeses up there and I am looking to make two of them that I can not find around here anywhere. 

If I remember right one is called oka and the other one is called ersom. Have you heard of this? As I recall they were very flavorful cheeses.

[cheese poet]

Hi there Deejay Debi,

Absolutely.  Oka was one of those standby cheeses that was being produced in Quebec long before the current Quebec cheese renaissance.  It's a modified version of the Port Salut recipe developed by Trappist monks in Brittany.  When the order was expelled from the Abbaye de Bellefontaine in Bégrolles-during the Third Republic, some emigrated to Quebec and set up shop at the Lake of Two Mountains near the village of  Oka, Quebec. They called the property La Trappe and developed an  agreement with the Université de Montréal, to create an agricultural school that was called the Oka Agricultural Institute. For years the Abbey supported itself by producing and selling Oka, but in the mid-1970s they sold the production rights to an outside interest. It's now produced by Agropur - a large Quebec dairy conglomerate that has altered the recipe and is making different versions of the cheese.  it's still good but not as good as I remember tasting when i was a kid.  The monks have actually just moved out of the monastery into a new property in Joliette and the original abbey has been taken over by a heritage foundation with plans to turn it into a hotel.

As far as I know Esrom is a Danish cheese, also a Port Salut style and made by trappists.  I haven't had a piece in years, but I remember it being stronger than Oka.   I'm sure there are Canadian cheese companies that make Esrom but it would be produced industrially and isn't thought of as a Canadian cheese in the way that Oka is. Here's a recipe form a Cnadina cheese supply Co. run by a couple of Danes

http://www.danlac.com/news/esrom-45-cheese-manufacturing

[DeejayDebi]

I thank you. I had some of this oka and esrom when I was a kid. My grandmother was raised by the nuns is that big fancy church in Montreal. We visited them once back in the early 70's and they served these two cheeses with bread. I have never seen it since but I remember it as a wonderfully strong flavored cheese which made a great snack. We don't get any Canadian cheeses here just NY, Vermont and Wisconson cheese.