June is Dairy Month

As I mentioned before, I grew up on a dairy farm, and anyone in the dairy industry knows that June is Dairy Month. I tried googling it to provide more information, but what I got was a list of events and teachings from nutrition, regional councils, and even Crayola has pages to color for this year’s dairy month already up online. As a kid, I was always told that Dairy Month marked the beginning of summer, in which there is always a rise in dairy products consumed, especially cheese and ice cream. Maybe it is a great marketing ploy to kick off the summer by encouraging people to get all the recommended calcium they need via dairy products. Personally, I don’t care – I do love my dairy products.

So for the month of June, I’m going to pay homage to my roots and talk a little bit about dairy products. I’ll try to keep it somewhat pertinent to the Candle Wine Project, and talk about cheese and alcohol pairings. Actually, making cheese is fermentation, so that really isn’t that much of a stretch. However, there will be times where I’m just flat out going to talk about dairy products. Sorry.

I have to make one other note to my readers in regards to cheese – I cannot stand blue cheese or goat’s milk cheese, and sheep’s milk cheeses are hit and miss with me. Thing is, it can be a blind taste test with goat’s milk cheese, and I will know, so it isn’t in my head. Some think I’m crazy with this because they can’t tell the difference, but it is the truth. Goats and sheep smell differently than cows, and that smell is in their wool, meat, and milk, and I just have a hard time dealing with it. Last time someone talked me into trying some, it caught in my throat and I couldn’t get it down for like a good 20 swallows. And the thing is, I want to like it, as I feel I’m missing out on a great deal of cheeses, and I love cheese! I also figure that I will go to Greece some day, and it will be pretty much all goat and sheep’s milk cheeses, and I’ll miss out on some of the wonderful food because I can’t deal with this cheese. The other irony in this is that I want to smell things in wine and find that I struggle, and then I have no problems with cheese and wish I couldn’t.