Every Christmas Eve, my older sister, my brother-in-law, and I ignore my slightly lactose intolerant little sister’s and my mother’s protestations. As we fill one or two massive wooden boards with all the fancy cheeses we’ve been dreaming about all year—Pont l’Évêque, Reblochon, taleggio, Manchego, P’tit Basque, Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue—my mother cries, “Is this ALL we’re having for dinner?”
The rest of the family can suck it. The night belongs to Big Cheese. Beforehand, we spend days arguing, like a pack of 7-year-old kids forced to share toys, over what makes it onto the board. We usually wind up with a cheddar, a blue cheese, a hard sheep’s cheese, and at least one or two stinky cheeses that almost have legs enough to jump onto the plate themselves.
Admittedly, I lean more toward European imports than local Washington cheeses. It’s not that I dislike any of them; I just don’t know them very well beyond Beecher’s Flagship and Mt. Townsend Creamery’s Seastack.
If you’re anything like me, you like what you’ve tried and would like to learn more, but you’re not sure where to begin. The Washington Artisan Cheesemakers Festival on September 24 is a good place to start. Compared with most other states, the Washington artisan industry is experiencing what Steve Jones, cheese expert and owner of Portland’s Cheese Bar, calls “explosive” growth.