Cheese!
Every week, my husband G. Grod rues the day I befriended the cheese guy at our grocery cooperative. Because every week, I bring home new and different snacking cheeses, and every week G. Grod reminds me that normal people don’t spend close to $20 a week on cheese.
In my defense, the total cheese bill is not only for the snacking, or recreational, cheeses, but also for sandwich and dinner-ingredient cheeses. Also in my defense is that G. Grod, Drake, and I all enjoy the cheeses, so it’s not like I’m cheesing alone. And now that Guppy is a year old, he’s trying the cheeses, too.
I believe there are lots of things in defense of the $20 weekly cheese bill: demand for a variety of cheese produces a supply of varied cheese; money goes to a local, member-owned grocery cooperative; it’s gotta be better for us than Easy Cheese, right? (more, from Wired); many of the cheeses are from local farmers, so we’re supporting local agriculture. Trust me, I can go on from here. I have many failings, but rationalization isn’t one of them.
A recent week’s selection included a goat havarti from Natural Valley in Wisconsin; a cranberry and black walnut sharp cheddar from Prairie Hollow Farm in Dover, MN; and Big Woods Blue, from Shepherd’s Way Farms. Some past favorites have been Bucherone, a soft, brie-like goat cheese that turned up on the cheese plate at a recent dinner out; Mobay, a lovely looking sheep and goat milk combo; and Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese Company.
While my cheese purchasing has yet to make our life unmanageable, there are some signs I may need to rein things in. I’ve already mentioned G. Grod’s weekly complaints. The other week as I approached the cheese case, R. the cheese man said, “I have something for you,” and disappeared into the back. He came back brandishing a cheese slicer. “I got an extra one of these from one of our suppliers,” R. said. “I figured if anyone deserved it, you did.”
I could feel guilty for buying too much cheese. Instead, I’ve used the slicer in good health and taught Drake how to use it, too.