Ursula Heinzelmann, Wein- & Essenschreiberin
Two things about Anatolia’s traditional cheeses fascinate me in particular: the link to the beginnings of our nomadic history and culture that is still so very much alive in them, and that they are an expression of all the layers and mingling of our cultural formation. We are all migrants, influenced by many cultures, even if we’re not always aware of it.
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On my first research trip to Poland in August 2014, in an organic grocery store in Warsaw, I came across cheeses made by Bożena and Daniel Sokołowscy. They keep around a hundred goats on their organic farm Kozia Łąka Sery Łomnickie not far south from Jelenia Góra in Lower Silesia, overlooking the Giant Mountains with the Schneekoppe peak.
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Small artisan cheese producer – that tends to sound oh so romantic and politically correct, evoking picturesque images of bucolic landscapes – but on closer inspection it so often is about sheer survival, stress, sacrifices, and (at least seen from my urban perspective) borderline chaos. I have encountered scenarios so extreme that I had to actively keep knowing about them separate from the resulting cheese and its quality… But it doesn’t need to be that way. » Weiterlesen…
It’s been ten years since Torontonian Arlene Stein started the Terroir Symposium in her native city. About one year ago, Arlene moved to Berlin, and we met, and she invited me to speak at this year’s event (of which she also created a more intimate satellite version in Berlin in mid-May, but that’s a different story). Me being travel-insatiable me took this as a wonderful excuse to be on the road for a whole month, going to New York, Cambridge, upper Vermont, Québec, Nova Scotia, and, extensively, Ontario. For wine, for cheese, for friends, for…life as such!
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Yes, no, I haven’t been to Iran or Kurdistan, Azerbaidjan or Armenia. Unfortunately, because my friend and colleague Naomi Duguid’s latest cookbook (which is as much about people and landscapes and history as it is about recipes) is pure temptation. However I don’t think I would have encountered Kamakh Rijal if food historian and Persia specialist Charles Perry who made me aware of it, is right (and he mostly is): this old cheese spread recipe seems to have gone extinct. » Weiterlesen…