Lake Champlain, Burlington, Vermont
Our Trip to the American Cheese Society (ACS) annual Cheese Conference was a great success. We attended Retail 101, 201 and various marketing and merchandising sessions and came away with fantastic information and the confidence that we are on the right path. Each specialized session was panelled by experts in the industry who are passionate about their businesses and of course passionate about cheese! We attended the welcome reception and sampled lots of local artisan cheeses. We came home armed with helpful resources and contacts to guide us through our journey of bringing the finest products to our shop and ultimately our customers. Shelburne Farms http://www.shelburnefarms.org/ was an amazing and beautiful place. Set on 1400 acres, they are super into education and it truly was the perfect setting for the event. Above is a photo of the outside of the Breeding Barn where the reception was held, and below is Alan inside the reception.
In addition to the conference, ACS holds an annual Cheese Competition. This year marks the 24th year. And the Best of show winner is: Leelanau Cheese, Aged Raclette. There were many categories and 52 pages of the judging results (there were over 1200 entries!). Some of the other categories include, Fresh Unripened Cheese, Soft Ripened Cheese, American Originals (you know - Monterey Jack, Muenster, Colby, Teleme etc.), Blue Mold Cheese, Hispanic and Portuguese Style Cheese, Feta (yum), Flavored, Smoked, Farmstead (which means the cheeses and fermented milk products are made with milk from herds on the farm where the cheeses are produced), Marinated Cheese, Cultured Mike Products (Creme Fraiche, Fromage Blanc, Plain Yogurt), Butters and Cheese Spreads. Whew and that is not even the complete list! The Cheese Shop On Park may need a bigger store!
Don't forget to check out our website which morphs a bit each week. http://www.thecheeseshoponpark.com/ Let your friends and family know if they would like to be added to The Cheese Shop On Park Blog Blast email to head on over to the website and fill out the form under "Contact Us" - We promise no personal information will ever be shared or sold.
Also - feel free to add questions, comments, suggestions or cheese requests to the blog comment section below.
Next week: The Cheese Shop On Park build-out update!
Cool blog, can't wait until you open! - can you get cheese from anywhere in the world ? Would love to see a list of the countries from which you will be carrying cheese.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be started an exciting Journey into a world that is so much more than the supermarket cheese, who knew! Best of luck and lots of cheesy success!
ReplyDelete~a fellow cheese lover~