A tidbit is a little piece of something BIG and that something is the big, big world of cheese. We know you’re kinda busy making your own “fabulous fromage,” so, every month (on the 15th), we scour the Web for you, picking out new items of interest and giving you the links. If we missed something, let us know at info@cheesemaking.com or in the comments below.
Celebrating the Make: As far as we know, the upcoming Vermont Cheesemakers Festival on July 7th in Randolph, VT is the only US festival with the word “cheesemaker” in it (we like that word!). There will be workshops and demos, so, you might want to secure your seats by purchasing your tickets in advance – click here
See you next month and happy cheese making!
Here is the link to the Innovation Center information about the course and site:
https://www.usdairy.com/science-and-research/food-safety/artisan-and-farmstead
Wanted to share a couple of resources that may be of interest: Short version is there is a brand new (released July 2017) Food Safety Basics Course available especially for artisan cheesemakers, as well as a fantastic website with updated information for the same audience. Note that the online course is free only until December 31, 2017. After that, it will be $140.
https://foodsafety.ncsu.edu/food-safety-basics-artisan-cheesemakers/
Use code: INTRO-FREE
Here is the Innovation Center’s announcement from the VP of Product Research and Food Safety Tim Stubbs:
” I am writing to share new resources for artisan/farmstead cheese manufacturers and to ask for your help in getting the word out to those who would benefit. As most of you are aware, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy leads a number of food safety initiatives which leverage resources from dairy processors to improve and protect the entire dairy community (more info atwww.usdairy.com/foodsafety). One of our focus areas is providing support to small/artisan processors who frequently have fewer resources and limited access to the expertise available to large processors. Many of these Cheesemakers are based on-farm and/or are Dairy Farmer owned.
The Innovation Center has taken our highly successful, face-to-face Introduction to Food Safety for Artisan Cheesemakers and converted it into an online workshop. This format will allow small manufacturers to access the materials 24/7, from anywhere, and complete modules at their own pace. The attached document has additional background information and text you can use.
To encourage attendance, we are making the class free (code: INTRO-FREE) through the end of the year. The link to this class and all of the IC’s Artisan resources is http://www.usdairy.com/artisan. After the introductory period we are also willing to extend the free period for your partners by creating custom codes for your use by region (e.g. ADA-FREE, MDA-FREE, IC-FREE…) — please contact me for more information or if you are interested in adding a code after the introductory period ends. “