PROVISIONING—Cheese and More
I grew up eating good cheese, not expensive cheese, but good New York State sharp cheddar. In our household, there was no such thing as American cheese, a misnomer if there ever was one. In that era in upstate New York, Black Diamond cheddar from Canada was the height of sophistication and an occasional rectangular log of it was a treat. Others in our extended family loved cheese also. Our Midwest cousins always arrived bearing Hickory Farms’ Lebanon bologna and a hunk of nutty Ohio Swiss. Yum! As an adult as my horizons broadened beyond the Finger Lakes, I was introduced to other cheeses; everywhere the Chief Penguin and I traveled we sampled cheese, from Gorgonzola in Italy, to Emmental in Zurich, Manchego in Spain and, of course, Roquefort in France.
Today the Chief Penguin and I delight in all the cheeses and comestibles on offer at Artisan Cheese Company in Sarasota. Owner Louise Converse (aka Cheese Louise) has a carefully cultivated and curated cheese case with a wide variety of cow, goat and sheep cheeses from small producers across the U.S. and abroad. My favorites in their case include a clothbound cheddar from England, a just ripe Camembert, caramelly aged Beemster Gouda, Bayley Hazen Blue from Vermont, and the store’s own pimento cheese.
Recently, Louise managed, through good connections, to snag some Rogue River Blue. This cheese made in Oregon beat out more than 3,000 other cheeses and was named the best cheese on the planet in the World Cheese Awards! We bought a piece and it is delectable and simply seductive. Creamy, not overly salty, it begs you to keep eating more.
But Artisan Cheese offers more than just cheese. There are distinctive crackers, very good scones, wines that are both thoughtfully chosen and moderately priced, along with prepared foods. Not up for cooking dinner? Try their mac and cheese, tomato pie, or one of their several soups. The store supports an apprentice program for young women in partnership with Girls Inc.; many of these food delights are their products. Along with all the cheeses and other treats, Louise has added tea towels as well as a selection of china and bamboo plates and mugs. These are distinctive wares that are not run of the mill. I have to admit I surrendered to temptation and bought several of these items—of course, for gifts!
RECENT READING: A Sensitive Novel
Upstate by James Wood
An Englishman by birth, Wood is the fiction critic for The New Yorker and also a Harvard professor and novelist. I’d not read any of his earlier novels, but was attracted to this one by both the title and the setting in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a town I frequented regularly some years ago. It’s a short novel with short chapters and is both delicate and exquisite.
Alan Querry is English and a widower who lives there with his partner, Candace. He has two grown daughters. Helen, who is married with children, often travels to Manhattan for her work in the music industry. Daughter Vanessa is a philosophy professor at Skidmore with a younger boyfriend named Josh. She has suffered from mental issues in the past and Alan and Helen have been summoned by Josh to Saratoga to check up on her.
I love Woods’ prose; each word in a sentence is carefully chosen whether it’s in a phrase describing the weather: “it was coming down fast, in the passive-aggressive way of snow, stealthy but relentless, insisting on its own white agenda, the soft monotony canceling all time, all resistance, all activity.” And, “white lengths of snow, like fluorescent stripes, were caught in the folds of their nylon coats.”
Or an evocation of someone’s thoughts, Alan’s here, as in:
“He watched his two highly intelligent, grown-up daughters, as they approached and drew back from each other, like switched magnets. Helen, apparently more confident, acute, with her slightly sharp teeth, elegantly handsome, but also being disagreeable somehow, as if she were necessary medicine Vanessa just had to take; Vanessa, quieter, softer, with her long dark hair and slightly squinting eyes, but exact, precise in her every word and thought, and so, to him at least, quite as formidable as her more obviously intimidating sister. How had he and Cathy produced them?”
This is a novel of a family ruptured by divorce, of sisters living at a distance who care while simultaneously annoying and needling each another, and of a father with a failing business who isn’t sure how best to help his older daughter nor initially certain if he desires to engage completely. Each of the principal characters reflects on his or her individual life: what does it take to be happy; how important is success versus family; what does an entire life amount to in the end? It’s a beautiful novel, wise and moving! (~JWFarrington)
Notes: Book cover courtesy of Goodreads.com; header photo from medical news.com. All other contents ©JWFarrington.
