it's about the cheese

last month i think i mentioned that i'd gotten the breakfast burrito at good to go, a market in trumansburg. i got it because the nice young woman at the counter said it was good.

and it was.

but i was noticing that they have all kinda good things there, including some very nice looking local cheeses and if you've known me for more than a day you know i like cheese.

there's a guy buying one of the local cheeses and i ask him a few questions about its pungency and staying power which are the sort of thing you want to know if you're living in your car and do not have a refrigerator.

and here's a thing about local people: when you start asking questions about products made locally, they are usually very happy to tell you just what's good and what you should not miss. it's like that pretty much everywhere you travel.

and the people in the store had a number of cheese recommendations for me, and also told me that the cheese counter at the shur-fine has a DIFFERENT selection of good local cheese.

really? the shur-fine?

yep.

the shur-fine is not the brightest or most up-to-date of grocery stores and its selection is limited but by golly they have a whole case devoted to fine local cheese.

i put that information on my list.

but then i happen to be coming back through trumansburg in the afternoon on a wednesday which is AWESOME because i had so far missed being in trumansburg on wednesday afternoons and that's when they have the farmer's market.

and it turns out the farmer who makes that cheese i was asking about at the store is there selling her cheeses and i thought i'd just pick one up direct from the farmer because awesome.

i bought one and went off happy and whistling, knowing that it would keep (properly stored) until i was good and ready to eat it.

now, i am nearly always ready to eat cheese, but when the cheese is nice, i like to be ready for it. ready means i can store unused portions properly. ready means i will have opportunities to finish the cheese while it's still at its practical best.

fast forward to last week.


it was a kenton bianco and i didn't do anything fancy with it. i ate a couple of slices plain, just because. mostly i ate them the way i like to eat brie: on toast with my homemade feral apple jam.

the one cheese lasted me about four days. the first day it was light and relatively firm and quite lovely. it matured a little each day and by the last day it was creamier and more flavorful, but oddly not more pungent. sometimes a soft-ripened cheese gets decidedly stinkier over some days. depending on the particular cheese, more stinkier is better, or it's not. it depends largely on how much you enjoy any one cheese's signature stink.

this kenton bianco got more complex flavors, but not stronger flavors, if that makes sense to you. by that last day it was a cheese i would have elbowed you out of the way to get more of.