Revisiting the Great Oregon Cheese Adventure

Leaving Oregon and moving to Arizona was a pivotal moment for me. Living here leaves me quite disconnected from the lifeblood of the know your where your food comes from consciousness that is so palpable San Francisco north.

As I revisit my first "big" video project, the Great Oregon Cheese Adventure of 2007 - 3 days, 515 miles and 9 Oregon creameries - I am filled with gratitude for having had the opportunity for such an up-close and personal experience with cheese. It profoundly deepened my appreciation for artisan and farmstead products and the people who make them.

A bit of history - I could hardly believe my luck when, in August 2007, I was commissioned by the Oregon Cheese Guild and Dairy Farmers of Oregon to produce a short vignette for the upcoming Wedge Festival and several informational videos for the OCG website.

On the adventure: cheese legend Max McCalman in the area researching his latest book "Mastering Cheese" (2009) along with his photographer Nicholas Beckman. Behind the wheel of the workhorse Rogue Creamery truck was tour guide extraordinaire David Gremmels, showing off the varied cheesemaking regions Oregon.

For many reasons and seasons, this project has been put on hold. Until now.

It was an incredible moment for me to be there, gallivanting around the countryside with the likes of Max and David, two rock stars in the cheese world. It felt, on many levels, like I had arrived at the center of the cheese universe.

Revisiting the trip footage has been pretty amazing, taking me back to a time when cheese and the people who make it were in my backyard. I'm rather tickled by some of the gems I've re-discovered from each and every stop along the way.

Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be sharing periodic vignettes that may emerge during the editing process as well as some short profiles of cheesemakers we visited.


To Be Continued...

Cue the Mic and Scrub the Sound...

Sound is probably THE thing I'm least comfortable with in video production. Varying levels of ambient noise, setting the camera's levels perfectly, all the technical stuff is hard enough to nail. Not to mention the things you can't always plan for like wireless signals jamming the sound, three dead batteries and no spare in 15 miles or goats chewing through hard-wired mics... I've had it all. And nothing has given me more grief.

Such is the case with the sound in this video. I love the sentiments, the camera work is solid for the most part (though intense background light is a pain...) but the sound is in certain areas disappointing. It's a difficult thing working around crowd noise, the ebbs and flows of nearby conversation can get louder and rowdier, especially late in the day after beer and wine has been enjoyed.

I'd imagine it's rather like working out the kinks in batches of "test" cheese that just aren't up to par. So many variables come together to make the final product. A slight change in vat temperature or audio level, curd set time or ambient crowd noise makes all the difference in cheese make or a video make.

Cheers to all the great cheesemakers from California and beyond who made this event oh-so-cool and a big shout out to the organizers and behind the scenes volunteers who made it happen!

...extra cheesy credit... can you spot the 3 non-California cheesemakers who make cameos? Hint: two are from Washington and one is from Oregon.

The Sweet Spot ~ When a Video "Coagulates"

Video production is a many stage process. First there's the shoot - which, depending on the project, can lead to hours and hours of footage and interviews with 10 or more people.

Then there's logging - transferring all that footage from tape into my editing software, pulling out long stretches of "might be useful" bits (which amount to only about 10% of what I shoot) - and tagging the clips so they're easily found. It's a rather tedious process.

Next, as my husband Matt (knower of all things video production and without whom I could not do what I do) coaches, "you find the music," a whole process in itself which I'll cover in a future post.

And then, once all the preliminaries are done (and I've fretted enough about how it's not coming together), there comes a very definitive moment where the story begins to emerge.

Every time this happens. And it always surprises me; when, daring to use a cheese analogy, it coagulates.

I hit the sweet spot where all the good bits from many different people come together. A clear arc forms as a thought from one person merges perfectly into the sentiments of another, almost magically telling the story. I've been in this space these past few days, putting the finishing touches on the rough cut of the CACG video. Exciting...

Yet, as much as I love it when the story crystalizes and the extraneous falls away, it's beautiful and vexing in equal measure - pushing "cut" on those many, many extraordinary bits that I just can't fit -- requires a ruthlessness that I'm still working on.

...Guess that's why there are outtakes...

"Normandy North of the Golden Gate" - Ten Years Later

I'm in the thick of producing a video for the California Artisan Cheese Guild. During the course of the interviews as I asked about the amazing resurgence of dairy culture in Northern California, I got a variety of answers.

Jill Giacomini Basch of Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese mentioned an article by R.W. Apple in the New York Times that ran in November, 2001, entitled "Normandy North of the Golden Gate". She points to it as being the "lightbulb" moment when the group began to see that they could market their cheese and celebrate the emerging phenomenon of products produced in a specific region of the country.

A quick Google search brought the article right to me...and I was very moved reading this account from the scene in 2001, a mere 10 years ago. It is almost unbelieveable how much cheese consciousness has grown and appreciation has flourished in many regions of the country.

The story features profiles of cheese industry luminaries: Bellwether Farms, Redwood Hill Farm, Cowgirl Creamery and, at the time, new kids on the block, Pt. Reyes Farmstead Cheese. It's a wonderful glimpse into the not-so-distant past of cheese.

My personal favorite bits: Bellwether matriarch Cindy Callahan citing her Sarah Lawrence professor Joseph Campbell and his pronouncement to "Follow Your Bliss!" as a call to cheesemaking and Redwood Hill's Jennifer Bice responding Apples' request for old, chalky Crottin with, what I suspect is a lament that: ''When we started, we sold a well-aged crottin, but people complained. Americans want it fresh, so that's what we give them.'' My how times - and palates have changed!

Moments like this, looking in from the 50,000 foot level, seeing the incredible growth and change in public awareness of and appreciation for artisan and specialty cheeses, I'm reminded about why I love what I do. Being part of a community of people committed to changing how America eats and responds to food is a great place to be.



*Test your cheese I.Q.: which cheesemakers' primary milk type is incorrectly identified? It was a glaring error to me and then I saw the small type correction... makes you feel good to be able to fact check the NYT ; )

Layers: in Editing & Cheese

Video editing technology astounds me. It's simple-complex, a lot like cheese; many, many layers, always something new waiting to be discovered. I like that, in my work, my life and in my food.

Working through a new project, with filters and templates and layer upon layer of media -- it's those layers that make it beautiful -- but it's maddeningly minute. Move one frame here, add a dissolve by this time, put this media on top of that. Oh, and don't forget to cut to the music and narrative.

I've discovered that once effects are placed, every single move of a clip requires a render* which can take several minutes at a shot, definitely not a quick process.

Writing about my experiences traveling through the cheese world has always been on my to do list. The elusive element, until now, has been twofold: time, as a WAHM with two kids, writing time is precious; and then there's that even bigger question, what particular niche is it that I operate in, what's my angle.

It occurred to me during a lull as an edit renders that this, this is my time to write... and, as I try one more mask or a gentle tweak to bring up the green in the grass -- what I am is a filmmaker, a story teller, who just happens to focus on cheese.

That's my niche. This is my blog.


*Rendering is a video editing process where the computer merges all the effects (like video titles, text boxes, color correction etc.) so they are viewable as a preview.

...don't make, don't sell...what do you do?

I had an interesting discussion with my friend and colleague Sasha the other day about what exactly it is we "do". We don't make cheese. We're not retailers. Though I started my cheese career behind the counter and she recently relaunched a Portland cheese shop, we're not really cheesemongers by vocation.

We both volunteer many, many hours on behalf of our professional organization, the American Cheese Society (ACS), and have witnessed the growth and maturation of our industry, working in creative pursuits that promote and educate about cheese. It's a nebulous thing neither of us is quite certain how to explain on a conference badge.

It's indicative of an industry in growth mode. Someday titles for those of us out there who sing the praises of fermented milk will be commonplace. For now, I just embrace the disparate elements of my "job".

I'll admit it, I'm a dabbler. I write about and promote cheese awareness. I produce video, create recipes and do food photography, but there's no one grand vision. I serve as Vice President of the American Cheese Society and cobble together a string of projects that supports me and, hopefully, grows an appreciation for artisan and specialty cheese.

In my busy life as a wife and mother to two boys, now living in a less-than-cheese-centric region, it's difficult to convey what I do to my friends or my family for that matter. Consequently, it's hard for me to appreciate the big picture, too.

It has occurred to me that a blog detailing my life in cheese might be just the thing to do, giving me a place to celebrate a delicious new recipe, my latest cheese find or the completion of a video project. A place where I can cover the exciting things afoot with the cheesemakers I work with, trips to regional festivals and news on the national and international cheese scene.

I hope it also brings an opportunity to connect with and grow a local (Phoenix/Scottsdale) cheese scene. Cheese Club of Scottsdale, anyone?!?

So this, then, will be the place I can point to and say, this...this is what I do. Check back often for: articles including the "Cheese In Depth" series, videos including "On Location" and "Meet Your Maker" vignettes, seasonal, cheese-centric recipes and other cheesy gab. Drop me a line if you have cheesy questions, too! Hope you enjoy!