Ding-Dong! It’s cheese month New Zealand, so no excuses not to make a meal of our country’s gorgeous offerings. If you live out of New Zealand, just scoff some cheese anywhey! HaHa.
Throughout the month of October, there’ll be cheese events held not quite Kaitaia to Bluff, but taking in a good spread of the country including Nelson, Auckland, Wellington, Blenheim, Tokoroa, Cambridge, Putaruru, Featherston, Matamata and Omokoroa. Most events are free, some make donations to charity (the Bowel Cancer Foundation Trust and Alzheimer’s Association will benefit from two events). There’ll be cheese factory tours, cheese competitions and gazillions of cheese tastings. Max from Il Casaro will give a couple of free Masterclasses in mozzarella making, and you can learn how to make the best gouda cheese sandwich with Miel from Meyer Cheese at events at Farro Fresh stores. Also on offer are ticketed events for craft beer and cheese matching, wine and cheese matching and a cheese dinner at C’est Cheese Featherston with Michelin trained chef Ant North creating 6 cheesy courses featuring up to 18 cheeses from New Zealand’s smaller producers. Mmm mm!
All the details are here:
All New Zealand Cheese Month events are listed on the NZSCA website
http://www.nzsca.org.nz and NZ Cheese Lovers Facebook page will have cheese giveaways, recipes and information about New Zealand cheesemakers throughout October. www.facebook.com/CheeseLoversNZ
Wangapeka Tui handmade cheese Gold Medal 2016 NZ Champions of Cheese Awards
Get stuck in
The Chair of NZSCA, Miel Meyer says October is an opportunity for cheese makers to focus on educating people about their cheese in the lead up to the summer entertaining season. He says October is an important month for cheese makers.
“October signals the spring flush it’s when most dairy animals have their young, grass is lush and plentiful and there is an abundance of milk allowing cheese makers to create fresh seasonal cheeses. Fresh cheeses such as ricotta, goat’s curd and buffalo mozzarella have such a delicate flavour that it makes them perfect to use with the fresh tastes brought to us by spring.”
The New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) is a membership body for the country’s cheese makers from its largest producers, through to farmhouse cheesemakers and home hobbyists. It is the owner and organiser of the annual Champions of Cheese Awards which will be judged on Saturday 24 February 2018, with winners announced on Wednesday 14 March 2018. NZSCA hosts Cheese Month and works to; encourage excellence in cheese making, present a unified voice for specialist cheesemakers with Government, media and other parties, promote awareness and appreciation of specialist NZ cheese, provide a forum for members and inform members with information on matters affecting their activities such as legislation, marketing opportunities, technical assistance.
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