Happy Holidays to each and every one of our members and everyone dear to them!

As we wrap up an extremely busy year, we are proud to have accomplished a lot. However, much important work is still in progress, and a great deal is on our plate for the years to come. At this point in the season, it is time to move the cheese, enjoy one another, and focus on the reason we are all here in the first place! But indulge me for a couple of moments to recount some of the work ACS is leading so that we can hit the ground running in the New Year:

• In 2012, ACS launched the first Certified Cheese Professional™ Exam. The human and financial resources that made the exam possible were significant, and the generosity of spirit among volunteers, exam takers, and participating members was palpable. The exam was administered with barely a hitch, and the results were inspiring. We garnered national front page news, welcomed 121 new ACS CCPs™, and are planning for the next exam in Madison.

• The Raleigh conference was wonderful for many reasons, not the least of which being the high quality of educational content. At the conference, FDA informed our members that it has budgeted to visit and inspect at least 246 artisan and raw milk cheesemakers in its 2012-13 budgetary year that began October 1. ACS has proactively engaged FDA and other relevant authorities regarding the steps we have and will continue to take, to help our industry operate at the highest level of quality possible. Just this week, we are reaching out to FDA with a letter to reiterate our commitment to collaboration, and with a request to have a seat at the table at all meetings and hearings relevant to American cheese. A number of key legislators are cc'd on the letter. Do you know someone who should be included? Contact ACS and we'll be happy to reach out to them.

Now, back to that thankful part. There is so much going for our industry, and ACS and its members are just beginning to take our seats on the world stage. Many of our members shone in recent competitions overseas and we are not the least bit surprised! ACS is here to support and promote American producers, their wonderful creations, and the folks who handle them until they reach the mouths of consumers. Watch as we introduce more ways to elevate the visibility and availability of cheese in America and the world in 2013 and beyond. Have ideas or want to help make this happen? Reach out to ACS, as volunteer opportunities abound.

Lastly, I would like to thank our engaged board, amazing staff, dedicated volunteers, members of all stripes, and the cheese-loving consumer, for helping ACS reach new heights in 2012 -- and for setting the table for the New Year. I hope to see some of you in San Francisco at the Fancy Food Show and the Good Food Awards. Please take advantage of the many educational opportunities available to you this winter, through webinars and other programs designed for you. Onward and upward.

Please take the time to relax and enjoy the holiday season, however you celebrate it!

With warm regards,

Greg O'Neill

President  

2013 is fast approaching, and with it ACS's 30th Anniversary.  Much has changed in the 30 years since ACS was first started by a small group of cheesemakers in upstate New York. But one of the things that amazes me the most is how much has not changed in that time. ACS is still made up of passionate and committed cheesemakers doing what they love and creating delicious, unique, wholesome products. Our extended community of farmers, producers, retailers, academics, and distributors all remain focused on collaboration over competition, tradition combined with innovation, and continuing to offer products that delight consumers. One thing that also remains the same is the industry's commitment to food safety. With the passing of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), changes are on the horizon. Along with our members, ACS anxiously awaits the publication of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) updated risk assessment for raw milk cheeses. In the meantime, more small cheesemakers and specialty foods retailers are being subjected to rigorous inspections by FDA, state agencies, and local boards of health. In 2013, ACS will continue to work for members to remain on the forefront of these activities. I hope you have renewed your membership for 2013 already, so that you can receive such information from us in a timely fashion. I also encourage you to take a moment to read this letter to FDA and elected officials, which we hope will continue to raise their awareness, and ensure their consideration of the unique issues facing artisan, farmstead, and specialty cheesemakers.  

Nora Weiser

ACS Executive Director  

Don't Forget to Renew Your Membership!   

If you haven't renewed your ACS membership for 2013, then your membership will expire on December 31. We don't want you to lose you -- and you won't want to lose your benefits of membership, including access to webinars and online resources, a subscription to this CheeseBytes e-newsletter, opportunities for product promotion at industry and consumer events, discounts on valuable products and services, and much more! And don't forget that ACS members also enjoy discounted registration rates for our Annual Conference & Competition, may enter products into our prestigious Judging & Competition, and receive discounted pricing for the Certified Cheese Professional Exam™.

All ACS memberships are structured on an annual calendar year cycle. Renew by December 31 to take full advantage of your 2013 membership investment! 

Mandatory FDA Registration is Due by December 31! 

All domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food, feed, or supplements for human or animal consumption in the U.S.A. are required to register or renew their FDA food facility registration by December 31, 2012. If you have registered with FDA in the past, guidelines of the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) still require that you re-register. Failure to register is considered a "prohibited act" by FDA, and can result in severe penalties. 

To learn more, please read the following resources provided by FDA:  

• What You Need to Know About the Registration of Food Facilities: Small Entity Compliance Guide 

• Questions and Answers Regarding Food Facility Registration 

Ask Dr. Cheese: Washing Curd       

Apply to be a 2013 Official Conference Cheesemonger!  

Do you have what it takes to become one of ACS's 2013 Official Conference Cheesemongers? Do you have the skills and knowledge to manage and prepare thousands of cheeses that will serve over 800 ACS Conference attendees in Madison this summer? Here's your chance to prove it! Apply today and you can join the ranks of past cheesemongers Paige Lamb, Jeanne Rodier, Kelly Sheehan, Alexander Kast, and Rachel Perez.

As an Official Conference Cheesemonger, you will be eligible for the following:

• Roundtrip airfare to Madison, WI
• 7 nights hotel stay at the conference hotel
• Personalized ACS logo chef's jacket
• Free registration for our 2014 conference (you'll be too busy in Madison to catch the sessions!)
• Your business and personal profile on our website, in CheeseBytes, and in the conference guide

A full job description and application are now available on our website. If you're interested in this prestigious position, apply soon -- the deadline is January 15!

Judging & Competition News: Past to Present 

 

Planning for the 2013 Judging & Competition started the day after the Awards Ceremony last August in Raleigh, NC. Since then, the Judging & Competition Committee has had several conference calls and will start our weekly calls in January as usual. We already have our agenda for Q1 of 2013, and the calls won't stop until a week before we arrive in Madison next year.

 

No big deal - right? Let me add some perspective.

 

For almost two decades, there was no "12 month" committee -- no meetings, no conference calls, no emails. Half the time, committee work was done on my IBM Selectric (that's a typewriter). It was a committee of one until two months before every conference.

 

In 2001, Judy Schad was conference chair and convinced the Board to contract with FSA of Louisville, KY to manage our day to day operations. The Competition "Committee" finally had help with logistics and correspondence. I felt, as a committee, we could finally communicate what we did to the membership. That was a huge triumph for me.

 

2005 was a watershed year: David Grotenstein joined the committee as future chair in training. Karen Silverston volunteered out of the blue to tidy up, count score sheets, and help judges. I had never met her before but was happy to have a volunteer who "...just wanted to work with the judging people." I no longer felt alone. Twelve months later she and Richard, her husband and now fellow committee member, tidied up all our accounting systems with advanced IT, data collection, same day score results, scanners, and templates. I thought the Committee was complete with David running logistics and FSA managing the paperwork. We were finally "cooking with cheese!" Actually, not yet -- we were only cooking with whey...

 

In 2007, David appointed Michele Haram and Debra Dickerson

The 2013 ACS Judging & Competition is sponsored by Atlanta Foods International

as Cooler and Judging Room Captains, set up a triage room, and a receiving committee for cheese entries. The Silverston's created templates for Festival signage, reformatted the scoresheets, and created an entry/receiving database. Heady stuff -- giant steps -- and then it got even better!

 

To continue reading, click here... 

 

John Greeley 

ACS Judging & Competition Committee

Member Profile: Farms for City Kids 

Anyone who has helped with farm chores can tell you they're a lot of hard work. That hard work comes with a lot of learning, though. At the Farms for City Kids Foundation in Reading, VT, the opportunities to learn are boundless. And what better way to learn than through cheese?

Farms for City Kids Foundation provides an outdoor classroom for urban youth. The organization was founded in 1994 at Spring Brook Farm. Around 700-750 students between the ages of 8-12 come to Spring Brook Farm each year. Most students are from New York City, but classes from Philadelphia, Boston, and Providence also come to learn on the farm. Some students have come from as far away as Vancouver, BC.

Students generally spend a week on the farm, learning through their experiences on a typical dairy farm. All students rotate through the farm chores, from milking a cow, to re-bedding a stall, to feeding a calf. They also help out in the garden - mapping vegetable locations, planting and transplanting, weeding, and harvesting. Once produce has been harvested, the students determine the prices at the farm stand, keeping in mind the cost of the work involved. This occasionally makes for some $7 cucumbers, and valuable lessons learned.

Students also get to learn at the Cheese House. There are glassed-in viewing areas for the students to watch the cheesemakers create cheese. Students are then able to help out in the aging room. After an introduction to the cheese, including a table top demonstration on milk coagulation, 10-15 students at a time go down into the aging room, put on their suits, gloves, and hairnets, and turn some of the older cheeses and get a chance to wash the cheese. By week's end, all of the students have been through the Cheese House.

While in the Cheese House, students learn a lot. The Education staff often talks about the yield, having students figure out how much money the farm would receive if they sold the milk, then comparing it to the profit made from selling cheese (keeping in mind how much milk is needed per pound of cheese). "They get an illustration of the value-added product of cheesemaking," said Jeremy Stephenson, Cheese Program Director.

Much of what is taught to the students depends on the type of group that is there. Some of the students are really interested in what they've been learning in school prior to arriving at Springbrook Farm. There's a big emphasis on microbiology -- that there are these little organisms that make cheese. All students are taught about the enzymes that are used to coagulate milk. Students also learn about having to control what's in the milk, making connections between the basics of hygiene and working with yeasts, molds, and bacteria in the aging room. "The microbial stuff is what's really interesting to them, and it's such an unusual thing for the students to see how cheese is made," said Jeremy.

Farms for City Kids Foundation produces around 80,000 pounds of cheese per year.  Tarentaise, a raw, semi-hard washed rind cheese, is made from Spring Brook Farm's 40 milking Jersey cows. Tarentaise received 3rd Place Best of Show in the 2009 ACS Judging & Competition and has placed in Farmstead categories in the 2010 and 2011 ACS Judging & Competitions, as well. Reading, a raw semi-soft washed rind cheese, is named after the town it's made in and is produced with milk from both partner farms and Spring Brook Farm.

For more details on Farms for City Kids Foundation, please go to www.farmsforcitykids.org or visit them on Facebook.