Happy Summer everyone!!

Guess what!!! “What”?
I am in a wedding cake! But before you think I am jumping out of a cake yelling “Surprise!” let me tell you that my products are the cake. Which is why this week I was not in Cannon Beach :( . It was quite the order, and my first real taste of large quantities for one person which I very much liked :)
It should be quite the cake and I am promised a photo.

I hate to sound like a broken record week after week, I’ll stop talking about how the cheese room kicked my ass. However! I will slyly mention that I filled up my Vat (which is where I make my cheese) four times this week. Pats on the back and high fives are always welcome, even if you have no idea what your high fiving me about.

Of course I could not have done it without my twin power! As they came bounding into the cheese room, I breathed a sigh of relief “aaahhhhh” and they started cleaning and scrubbing and scrubbing some more. Jacque was on bag duty this week and her comment was “Well, it could be worse Lisa could be a butcher!” Yeah and then they would be scooping dead organs off the floor and scrubbing blood off the walls and ceilings instead of milk and curd! Along with their bubbling enthusiasm for helping me they brought with them candy (thank gd) and a speaker which we quickly hooked up to my Iphone. We soon got used to being interrupted every couple minutes with text messages, phone calls and emails that were coming in. It would have made a great Apple commercial for the Iphone!

I have a special announcement to make!! hAHHHEEMMM
We will be doing a special promotion on milk and are dropping our prices for two weeks only, we would like for you to take advantage (and become addicted) to our cream line Jersey milk.
We will have nonfat, 2% and whole as well as chocolate milk from Cocoa Godiva!
Prices will be $4 for a quart and $6 for a half gallon including the deposit on the glass. Jersey milk tastes much better than anything else out there and also has higher B12 vitamins, so please ask for a sample or two and give it a try!
As always we are happy to reserve your milk each week, and our coolers are your coolers. We are happy to store any product plus what ever you are carrying while you finish your shopping!

In case you have forgotten who I am you can now refresh your memory by visiting this weeks newsletter that Portland Farmers Market wrote!

http://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&tab=wm#inbox/12257810e8bedc8e

I am the farmer and you can meet me!

I have a new cheese maker friend! He is the former owner of LeVan du Fromage, who’s the little engine that could now!
Its reasonable that we would be friends since I know drive his former vehicle and know what his old processing facility looks like.
Its awesome having someone that I can shoot the curd with. I am looking forward to further chats with him and am exited at the thought that I can now send texts like “I just hand scooped 200lbs of ricotta and my vat is clean and ready for more! What are you doing?”
I cant do that with just anyone you know. He claims he can sell more cheese than I can, so I have invited him to a dual selling match on Saturday to see whos who, but he declined. Hopefully he isn’t a lame-o and can handle a little competition! Wouldn’t that be fun?

This week was JC’s very first department of agriculture inspection, or OLCC as Haley likes to call it. We were the only one to have coolers below 40 degrees and to pass with flying colors!! Yeah go us!!
I believe that Haley was asked to repeat her line about why we were not putting our product out, and received a smiley face and a hand shake! Go us!

Creamy ricotta, crusty bread, and zesty cherry tomatoes make for a simple but satisfying snack.

Handful of cherry tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground
black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 loaf of ciabatta or another
peasant-style bread
1 garlic clove, peeled
1–1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese,
room temperature
Parmesan cheese

1. Toss tomatoes in a small skillet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste, set 5″ under broiler element, and leave until the tomatoes have burst and started to release their juices, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

2. Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire in a grill or set gas grill to medium-high heat. Cut bread into 1/2″-thick crosswise slices. Drizzle the bread with olive oil. Grill bread slices until both sides have grill marks and slightly charred crusts, 4–5 minutes.

3. While hot, rub bread with garlic, if you like. Slather 1 tbsp. of the ricotta on top of each toasted slice.

4. Spoon oozing cherry tomatoes onto ricotta. Garnish with thin shavings of parmesan cheese and more black pepper.

Have a splendid week, eat lots of dairy and have fun!
Yours always
-Cheese Czarina!!!