Gordon Edgar - Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge

PRAISE FOR Cheesemonger

Gordon Edgar, punkster turned cheesemonger, has a knack for telling stories and crams his passion, wry humor, and knowledge into every page. Its such a treat to read that as I neared the end, I started to ration the pages to make it last longer.

DIDI EMMONS, author of Vegetarian Planet

Smart, compassionate, and fun to read, Cheesemonger took me by surprise! Who would expect the memoir of a cheese man to be so fascinating, playful, and refreshing? Its great to hear a voice on food from the punk route, and Gordon Edgar brings a fresh and important perspective that we could all use for handmade foods, those that arent, and the people who buy them.

DEBORAH MADISON, author of Local Flavors:
Cooking and Eating from Americas Farmers Markets
and What We Eat When We Eat Alone

Gordon Edgar knows his cheese and aims to please. Unique in the offering of cheese books, Gordon weaves an intricate web of his world at Rainbow Grocery: a democracy of passionate food mavens with a look at social justice and the foibles of the human condition. Its all there. Gordons expressive and entertaining prose exudes his smiling wit. His tales are both light-hearted and poignant. He dares to ask all of the tough questions. Blessed is the cheesemonger.

ALLISON HOOPER, cofounder,
Vermont Butter & Cheese

Weaving together seemingly disparate worlds, Gordon Edgar takes you on as a passenger in his wickedly funny and insightful memoir. By the time I finished reading, I had learned new things about cheese, for sure, but was more struck by his unique and humorous take on cooperatives, community, and how Americans relate to their food. Cheese may be the focus, but human dynamics, in all our shared quirks, passions, and constructed factions, is really the subject.

BECKY SELENGUT, chef and author

All I can say is this: If Randall Grahm, of Bonny Doon, would have discovered cheese before wine, he would have written this book. Cheesemonger is witty, insightful, and utterly packed with passion and fine humor. This book now goes on the required reading list for my entire staff!

CHARLIE TROTTER, Restaurant Charlie Trotter

Cheesemonger is a deliciously fun read, cover to cover. Gordon gives a knowledgeable and thoroughly unabashed view from the front lines of a surging field.

MAX MCCALMAN, author of The Cheese Plate, Mastering
Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Matre Fromager
and Dean of Curriculum at www.artisanalcheese.com

CHEESEMONGER

CHEESEMONGER

A Life on the WedgeGORDON EDGAR

Chelsea Green Publishing
White River Junction, Vermont

Copyright 2010 by Gordon Edgar

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Emily Foote
Developmental Editor: Benjamin Watson
Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad
Designer: Peter Holm,
Sterling Hill Productions

Printed in the United States of America
First printing January, 2010

Our Commitment to Green Publishing
Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise on the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because we use recycled paper, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources.

Cheesemonger was printed on Natures Book Natural, a 30-percent postconsumer recycled paper supplied by Thomson-Shore.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Edgar, Gordon.
Cheesemonger : a life on the wedge / Gordon Edgar.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60358-273-5
1. Edgar, Gordon. 2. Cheese industry--United States--Biography. 3. Cheesemaking--United States--Biography. I. Title.

HD9280.U62E34 2010
381.4173092--dc22
[B]

2009035968

Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Post Office Box 428
White River Junction, VT 05001
(802) 295-6300
www.chelseagreen.com

For the farmers, the cheesemakers,
and all the cheese workers.

CONTENTS

There are plenty of great cheese guidebooks out there. This is not one of them.

However, in writing a cheesemonger memoir, it seems a little unfair to the reader to not include some helpful hints for cheese-curious people and some descriptions of the cheeses I use as examples in this book. At the end of every chapter there are profiles of a couple of cheeses that sum up some of the subjects I discussed in that chapter. I have included approximate pricing as well, though who knows what things will cost by the time this book is published. So, if only for comparative purposes:

$ = under $10 per pound

$$ = $10 to $20 per pound

$$$ = $20 to $30 per pound

$$$$ = $40 per pound and up

Ive also included a glossary and a Cheese Buying for Beginners section at the end of this book that will help you get what you want out of your cheese purchases. I didnt want to bog down the book by going over those definitions and tips in the main chapters, but I bet even some of you cheese-experienced people may find something interesting in there.

GE

Its a punk rock tradition to have a Thank You list that takes longer to read than it takes to listen to the album. I cant quite do that in this medium, but no work like this is a solo endeavor. This simply wouldnt have been possible without the people listed here.

First off, big thanks to my coworkers in cheese: Mariah Sparks, Jenny Glazer, Pete Weiss, Kelly Parrott, Anna Costa, Andy Levi, Sarah Reed, Liz Ramos-Jajeh, Dlouie Snyder, Jean Kwan, Pat Seguin, and everyone who has ever worked in cheese even for one shift. Thanks for putting up with this project, even when its meant more work for you. I also owe appreciation to all my other coworkers (past and present) at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, the countrys biggest worker-owned and -run retail storethere are way too many of us to name. Thanks to all the people whove bought cheese from us at Rainbow over the last fifteen years, especially the ones who had the patience to let us get our act together way back when.

Some other co-op folks deserve note, too: the Cooperative (the band). All the workers at the Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley for raising the worker co-op cheese bar so high. All the worker co-op folks across the Bay and the country whom I have missed organizing with for the last couple of years, as I tried to finish this book. Melissa Hoover and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Also, sorry to the Network of Bay Area Worker Collectives where I flaked on my BOD membership when I got serious about writing this book. That should probably go for Brahm and Peoples Grocery in Oakland as well, since they had to deal with a distracted Gordon over the last year or so. Also, I want to acknowledge all the 1980s anarchists, Outrage collective members, anti-apartheid activists, and Epicenter punks who helped push me down the co-op path.

This work clearly would not have happened without the cheese buddies, mentors, cheesemakers, distributors, and dairy scientists who inspired me and taught me so much (Ill let you guess who is who): Sheana Davis, Andrea London, Jessie Schwartzberg, Raymond Hook, Brad Dube, Kathleen Shannon Finn, Molly Brownson, Steve and Patty Ehlers, Judy Creighton (the first cheese person to befriend me), Jeanine Creighton, Rachel Ennis, Jennifer Bice, Steven Schack, Dee Harley, Ig Vella, Ricki Carroll, Donna Pacheco, Mandy Johnston, Mark Todd, Tim Pedrozo, the Boersma family, everyone in the Rossi family, Joel Fanfelle, Hans Kunisch, Dannie Ray, Jim Yonkus, Diane Sauvage, Debra Dickerson and everyone at Neals Yard, Susan Patton Fox, Steve Giambalvo, Maxx Sherman, Catherine Donnelly, Cara Ching, Lenny Rice, Becki McClure, Rachel Cohen, Sue Conley, Peggy Smith, Dennis Yashar, Bob McCall, Janet Fletcher, Mary Keehn, Sue Worthman, Terri Rowley, the Beehive folks, the Sierra Nevada folks, Franklin Peluso, the Giacomini family, the Little family, the Kehler families, Juliet Harbutt, Moshe Rosenberg, Gianaclis Caldwell, Paul Kindstedt, Soyoung Scanlan, Paul Haskins, Jeff Jirik, Ray Bair, Julianna Uruburu, Alma Avalos, Laura Martinez, Kate Arding, Andy Lax, Allison Hooper, Sid Cook, Joe Widmer, Cindy Major, Mariano Gonzalez, Daphne Zepos, Dan Strongin, Cassy Adamson, Marie Schmittroth, Richard and Karen Silverston, Marci Wilson, David Grotenstein, Sarah Marcus, Jeanette Hurt, Bryce Canyon of Cheese, and everyone from the California Artisan Cheese Guild.