Filed under: Organic dairy
PastureLand is proud to announce it will be part of the inaugural Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival!
ADISON, Wis. – Nearly 700 cheese enthusiasts from across the country are headed to the First Annual Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival at the Monona Terrace in downtown Madison on Nov. 6-7. 
Attendees will meet more than 30 Wisconsin cheesemakers and taste 150 of the state’s finest artisan, farmstead and specialty cheeses.
The sold-out, two-day festival features a variety of events, including a Friday night Meet the Cheesemaker Gala Reception, Saturday morning guided tours and afternoon educational seminars, and a Saturday evening Artisan Cheesemaker Dine Around. All advance tickets were sold with two weeks of going on sale in August.
Hosted by Wisconsin Cheese Originals, a new member-based organization dedicated to celebrating Wisconsin artisan and specialty cheesemakers, the festival is intended to be a premier destination for cheese enthusiasts and food buyers from across the nation, says Jeanne Carpenter, executive director.
“I am astounded at the response from people across the country who purchased hundreds of tickets, just to meet our Wisconsin cheesemakers and taste their cheeses. What an amazing testament to the quality of our dairy industry,” Carpenter said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this will become an annual event, which will only grow in size and attendance. It’s very exciting.”
Festival events include a Friday Night Meet the Cheesemaker Gala Reception, where attendees will meet 31 Wisconsin cheesemakers and taste 150 different Wisconsin original cheeses. On Saturday morning, participants will either take a private coach bus tour of Green County cheese factories, or partake in a personal guided tour of the largest producer Farmer’s Market in the nation, with lunch at Fromagination on the Capital Square.
Saturday afternoon features a stunning line-up of six seminars at Monona Terrace, including wine, beer & cheese pairings, the art of crafting cave-aged and pasture-grazed cheeses, and the science behind “stinky” cheeses. Wrapping up the two-day event will be six Artisan Cheesemaker Dinners at participating Madison Originals restaurants, where each chef is partnering with a local cheesemaker and hosting a one-of-a-kind three-course dinner. Attendees will join the featured cheesemaker at a private table for 12.
Additional sponsors and partners of the First Annual Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival include: BelGioioso Cheese, Dairy Business Innovation Center, Fromagination, Madison Originals, Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and World Import Distributors. For more information, visit www.wicheesefest.com.
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Wisconsin Cheese Originals shares information about Wisconsin artisan cheeses through a variety of events, including educational seminars, tours, cheesemaker receptions, and an annual cheese festival, all in the spirit of celebrating Wisconsin cheesemakers. For more information or to inquire about membership: www.wisconsincheeseoriginals.com
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: balsamic vinegar, butter, candy, candy thermometer, caramel, grass-fed, recipe, sea salt
Just putting this recipe up this morning got our mouths watering.
Sea salt and balsamic vinegar caramels on a cold and rainy fall morning, could it get any better than this?!
We lurched from summer to fall a couple weeks ago. We’ve had rain and occasional snow in the past few days, so we’re in a mood to get a fire in the fireplace, pre-heat the oven, and head to the kitchen for some baking.
Share your favorite fall recipes with us – especially if they have butter in them. If we put one of your recipes up we’ll make you famous (sort of) and send you some free butter! Cookies, anyone? Squash, maybe? Happy fall, and happy baking!
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: "PastureLand butter", artisan, cress spring bakery, Dane County Farmers Market, hero, locavore, New Yrok Times magazine, NYT, organic, pastry, wheat sensitive
Our friends at Cress Spring Bakery near Madison, WI, are in the news again! Check out the October 11 New York Times Sunday magazine, dedicated to “Putting America’s Diet On A Diet.” “Once seen as a barefoot hippie baker, Jeff Ford of Cress Spring Bakery is now a locavore hero.” Bravo Jeff!
Check out our post from July 30 here for a peek at the pastry case at the Cress Spring booth at Dane County Farmers Market in Madison. It will make you drool!
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: dairy prices, grass-fed, local fair trade, milk price, organic, tough year for dairy farmers
Riding the dairy price rollercoaster this year has been more like trying to hang on to a bucking bronco. Up and down, then way up to the point where the dairy industry produced a lot more milk than it needed, and way down to where farmers are losing money every day – not just “not making enough” but actually losing money every time they milk.
We’ve been talking a lot at PastureLand about how milk pay prices affect us, and what we can do to protect ourselves from wide swings in the market. See this reflection on our site, about a recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on what a tough year it’s been for dairy producers.
A gallon of regular milk may be less than $2 in many stores, a bonanza for people looking for a way to cut food costs, but what are you supporting when you go for the cheapest option possible? Retail milk prices are lower than at any time in recent memory, but processors like Dean Foods are posting the highest gains ever and farmers are going out of business.
One thing is for sure, the system is broken, and something has to change. This is a call for consumers to support local suppliers who charge a fair price for sustainably produced goods and services. Local fair trade is not just a catch phrase. Local fair trade means we all do well, together.
Filed under: Organic dairy
Michael Pollan, the author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food” spoke over the past weekend in Madison, Wi, and protesters from Big Ag gathered to disrupt and derail the conversations. Blogger Jill Richardson gives us a view of the protests and the conversations in her post at Daily Kos, and in her own blog, La Vida Locavore.
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: pasture butter, pastureland, Runners World
We don’t like to refer to our award winning Summer Gold butter as “spread”, but hey, we’ll take it. Thanks Runners World!
Good for You
Fat-wary runners should give butter a second chance: Pasture butter is made from the milk of cows that graze on fresh grass in the summer. It’s rich in vitamin E, beta-carotene, and selenium. Studies have found it contains more cancer-fighting conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and a healthier ratio of heart-protective omega-3 and 6 fatty acids than traditional butter.
Get the Best
Organic Valley produces an 84 percent butterfat pasture butter. “The low moisture concentrates nutrients and flavor,” says Organic Valley’s Tripp Hughes. PastureLand and Organic Pastures also sell the spread (find it in the organic aisle). Store butter in the fridge for up to four months or freeze it up to a year.
Kitchen Simple
Like most butter, pasture butter has seven grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, so use it sparingly. Try it in lightly seasoned dishes, where its rich flavor will be the focus. Add a pat to a bowl of steamed vegetables, like green beans, corn, or peas. Or brush melted butter on white fish fillets, like halibut, before grilling.
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: Anne Mendelson, butter, food, grass-fed, Inc, local, Nina Planck, organic, pastureland, Restaurant Guys Radio, The Surprising Story of Milk
One of our favorite podcasts is Restaurant Guys Radio. They’ve had everyone from fine dining and cocktail experts (cocktailians!), to people from our world like Nina Planck on grass-fed nutrition for nursing mothers and babies, and Andrew Zimmern, to the guys who made the new movie Food, Inc. These guys operate two fine dining restaurants in New Brunswick, NJ, Catherine Lombardi and Stage Left. Next time are even close we’ll be detouring there to check them out.
On the September 14 show they had the author of one of our favorite new books, Anne Mendelson, talking about “The Surprising Story of Milk”
If you are at interested in milk beyond the shelf at the grocery store you will love this book. Dairy trivia galore, tons of cool info on butter, and dozens of interesting recipes.
Oh yeah, and at the end of the podcast there is a little plug for PastureLand butter. We sent them samples earlier in the summer, and they talk about (well, laugh about) the lengths we went to get on their radar. It’s always fun to talk with people who are enthusiastic about food, and these guys are over the top enthusiastic! Very fun podcast.
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: butter, Chef Shack, grass-fed, MInneapolis, organic, pastureland, Tasting Table, Tim McKee
Tasting Table is a prominent New York City food blog that covers all kinds of cool/delicious food things all over the country. We smiled when this came over the wires the other day. 
Pretty heady company – these are some amazing butters. If you haven’t tried the Vermont sea salt crystal butter, make a point to track some down, it is amazing!
A couple days after this post, Tasting Table did a whole feature on “Hipness in the Heartland” mentioning some of our favorite places and chefs, in particular Chef Tim McKee, and the Chef Shack at Mill City Market.
So much good food, so few meals…
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: calf, cow, girl, Goodhue County Fair, grass-fed dairy, minnesota, organic, pastureland
One of the fun parts about PastureLand is watching the kids pic up farm skills as they grow up. Some of them have even gone on to farm on their own!
Emily had a great year at Goodhue County Fair, and brought in a zillion ribbons. 
The first pic is Emily showing her calf, Abby.
Calvin got in the act, too. The second pic is Calvin judging the ice cream, he gave it a blue ribbon.
The third pic is Emily ready to show here bull calf calf, Colors. Beautiful speckled cow! Colors is one of famous PastureLand cow Missy’s grandsons.
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: "Fresh Taste Festival", "Minnesota Monthly", "MIssissippi River", "PastureLand butter", downtown, MInneapolis, pastureland, skyline
Check us out at Minnesota Monthly’s 2nd annual Fresh Taste Festival, along with PastureLand friends Tour de Farm, Corner Table, Strip Club, Birchwood Cafe, Chowgirls Catering, Common Roots Cafe, Mill City Market and Peace Coffee (whew!).
This is a great festival, really well done, and lots of lots of great local food and drink, well worth the trip (and really, it’s beautiful Nicollet Island, with a world-class view of downtown Minneapolis,come on!).
If you make it to one major local food event this year, this is the one to hit.
Please say hi if you come to the PastureLand booth. We’ll be sampling our delicious raw milk cheddar, and of course, PastureLand cultured, organic grass-fed butter. See you there!
pic is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimherzog/1559170249/
