Gourmet News

Oregon Cheeses Score Record 24 Awards at American Cheese Society Conference

Published July 25, 2022

The nation’s specialty food industry descended on Portland last week at the American Cheese Society’s 2022 annual conference, its first in-person event since 2019. Oregon food and beverage makers were featured in pre-conference tours, educational and tasting seminars, and at a Best of Oregon celebration hosted by the Oregon Cheese Guild during this four day conference for over 1,000 industry professionals.

At the Annual Cheese Competition, Oregon artisan, farmstead, and specialty cheesemakers took home blue ribbons in 10 categories and Oregon cheeses landed a clean sweep in the 2-4 Year Aged Cheddar category. The awards were announced July 21 at the ACS’s 39^th Annual Conference. Tillamook received seven awards, Face Rock Creamery nabbed five, and Briar Rose Creamery scored four coveted medals, including three golds. There were 1,387 entries representing 196 creameries from North and South America in this year’s competition, the nation’s largest. The full list of Oregon’s awards is on page two.

Oregon cheeses and local specialty food and beverage were on display all week to buyers from around the world, showcased in seminars such as “An Agricultural Tour from the Oregon Trail to Modern Day,” “A Distinctive Fermentation Community: Oregon’s National Leadership,” “Portlanders’ Cultural Diversity in Food” and “What Grows Together Goes Together: Oregon’s Dynamic Geological History and Terroir;” during the Cheese Crawl at local establishments and in events and receptions such as those hosted by marquee sponsor Tillamook and the Oregon Cheese Guild.

The public will be able to taste this year’s winners from Oregon and beyond at Portland’s celebration of cheese and all things that go with it, The Wedge, Sept. 24 at Alder Block. Other opportunities to taste competition winners and other delicious Oregon cheeses are at our retail partners statewide during Oregon Cheese Month in September, at the Oregon Cheese Festival in Central Point and at creameries around the state on the Oregon Cheese & Food Trail.

Read more in the Gourmet News‘s Fall Cheese Guide. To advertise, email sales@oser.com.

MyForest Foods Expands MyBacon Distribution to Massachusetts

Published July 25, 2022

MyForest Foods Co. has formed retail partnerships with Berkshire Food Co-op in Great Barrington, Mass., and Cornucopia Natural Wellness Market in Northampton, Mass. These retail partnerships are the result of scaling for MyForest Foods, a whole-cut mycelium food company. MyForest also held an opening ceremony for Swersey Silos, its vertical mycelium farm, the world’s largest farm of its kind.

Since 1981, Berkshire Food Co-op has upheld its mission to provide sustainable food products and nourish communities in an environmentally sensitive manner, making them a natural mission-aligned partner for MyForest Foods to introduce its flagship product, MyBacon, to consumers.

An hour east, Cornucopia Natural Wellness Market has offered the best in local and organic foods to Northampton since 1980. The company’s first retailer, Honest Weight Food Co-op of Albany, N.Y., has consistently sold out of MyBacon over the past 70 weeks.

MyForest Foods commemorated the opening of its new vertical AirMyceliumfarm — a true milestone to scale MyBacon distribution and drive accessibility. The farm, known as Swersey Silos, utilizes a patented AirMycelium technology developed by Ecovative, the mycelium technology company that spun out MyForest Foods in 2020. The Ecovative team was responsible for designing and constructing Swersey Silos to provide MyForest with the full benefit of the AirMycelium technology.

Swersey Silos has the capacity to produce nearly 3 million pounds of mycelium annually, offering an alternative to traditional pork bacon that drastically reduces the land, water and carbon footprint found in conventional factory farming practices. Swersey Silos is part of 120,000 square feet of new infrastructure, including a new production facility in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., which is slated to open this fall. Operating at full capacity, MyForest Foods is projected to serve MyBacon to more than one million consumers by the year 2024.

The farm is named after Burt Swersey, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who inspired MyForest Foods co-founder Eben Bayer to seek creative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Swersey Silos is dedicated to Burt’s legacy and MyForest Foods’ promise for a well-fed future.

“By forming strong partnerships, listening to our consumers, and focusing on sustained growth, MyForest Foods continues to embody Burt Swersey’s principles to make lasting, effectual change,” said Eben Bayer, Co-Founder and CEO of MyForest Foods. “Professor Swersey’s philosophy of ‘don’t do nonsense’ is at the core of our mission to do meaningful work — it’s why we’ve focused on creating a delicious, sustainable product to help alleviate the dual crisis of climate change and food scarcity.”

Earlier this year, MyForest Foods announced a partnership with Whitecrest Mushrooms Ltd., a Canadian gourmet mushroom farm, to develop nearly three million pounds of annual MyBacon mycelium production capacity on less than one acre of land. Through this successful partnership and the new farm infrastructure, MyForest Foods is poised to reach new consumers through additional natural products retailers and a northeastern food truck tour later this year.

For updates on the specialty food industry, subscribe to Gourmet News.

Cheese Society Gives Awards, Revives Meet the Cheesemaker at Annual Convention

Published July 22, 2022

Rogue Creamery cheese at the American Cheese Society convention

Rogue Creamery’s famous blue cheeses

Seventeen years ago, David Gremmels, owner of Rogue Creamery, proposed that the American Cheese Society create a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The ACS Lifetime Achievement Award was created in 2006 by the American Cheese Society board of directors to honor those whose professional accomplishments have made a significant and lasting impact in the American cheese industry, and whose life and character have earned the respect and admiration of their professional colleagues.

Today, Gremmels (aka “Mr. Blue” for Rogue’s famous blue cheese) and Paula Lambert of Mozzarella Co., received Lifetime Achievement Awards at the ACS conference in Portland, Ore. Both had positive messages to send to peers and newcomers.

“Please join me in trying to make a positive impact in all that we do,” Gremmels said, “and make it safe, healthy, positive and other centered.”

Lambert joined the ceremony via video, as she was isolating in Dallas after contracting COVID. Lambert was hailed as a pioneer in artisanal cheesemaking and mentor to numerous cheesemakers.

“I’m thrilled beyond words,” Lambert said. “Keep a positive attitude and don’t give up.”

Michele Haram of Cypress Grove was given the Above & Beyond Award for her dedication to volunteerism.

Meritorious Service Awards were given posthumously to Anne Saxelby of Saxelby Cheesemongers and Patrick Polowsky, who created the Cheese Science Toolkit.

There was cheese to eat and hugs to give at the ACS Meet the Cheesemaker event.

The most popular event at the annual American Cheese Society convention, Meet the Cheesemaker, returned, with hundreds of attendees flocking to a conference room in the Oregon Convention Center to taste all the cheeses and accompaniments offered by members.

For more coverage of the American Cheese Society Convention and other specialty food industry events, subscribe to Gourmet News.