ACS Day 2

Today was an early day. Our volunteering shift began at 6 am. We were 'cracker ninjas' as the head Cheesemonger phrased it, prepping for the morning breakfast session. We also prepared the Mexican cheeses for tomorrow's tasting event and rolled some procuitto for another event . Our shift ended in time for the first round of the educational sessions and I went to a talk about farmstead flavors in milk. We then had lunch and a quick spin around the bookstore and tradeshow. My second session of the day focused on how to incorporate cheese classes into your business plan. I also popped into a talk about milk and its nutritional qualities.
The afternoon ended with the 'Meet the cheesemaker ' event and we are now headed off for dinner on the rooftop gardens of the convention center.

American Cheese Festival Day 1

<p>Wednesday:<br>
I am staying with another cheesemaker, Jean Koons. She has a goat dairy in Sydney, Me. She has friends that live just outside of Madison. We headed into the city yesterday morning to catch a bus for the conference tours. After several trips around the one way square that surrounds the capitol building, we ended up on the right road, but locked in bumper to bumper traffic. We arrived in time to see the last bus pulling out of the road leading to the convention center. All was not lost though! We were given the itinerary, and caught up with the tour in time for the picnic lunch and tour of the Mont Bleu Dairy aging cave. The dairy makes mostly cloth bound cheddars and alpine cheeses. Some of the cheddar wheels are 40 pounds!

American Cheese Society Conference 2013

Today is day 1 of the ACS conference. I will be heading out shortly for a bus tour of creameries and dairys in the Green County area.