Back in 2002, lawyer Petra Cooper had a dream of making cheese. Now she's the powerhouse of Ontario artisanal cheese. Not bad for six years hard work.

Cooper's first move was to start the  Ontario Cheese Society, a clearing house for all cheese matters. On Monday, April 28, the OCS has its fourth Annual Meeting at Hart House 8.30am to 6.30 pm. Keynote speaker is Dr. Catherine Donnelly of the Vermont Institute for Artisanal Cheese, the first such institute in the U.S. Dr. Donnelley is going to talk about the viability or raw milk cheese. Anyone interested in the future of raw milk cheesemaking (and raw milk cheese eating)  in North America MUST hear Dr. Donnelly. For info, go to www.ontariocheese.org/conference/

Then on May 19, Cooper opens Fifth Hill Artisan Cheesemakers in Prince Edward County. Fifth Hill's cheesemaker Stephanie Diamant, a great goat cheesemaker in her own right, is heading the team making goat and sheep's cheeses. The first batch were cooked up off premises while the splendid Fifth Hill premises were being completed, and Torontonians,  if you're quick you can still pick up FT's zippy Bagel Chevre from Pusateri's at Avenue Road and Yorkville.
Email: petrac@fifthtown.ca

In Prince Edward County:

Fifth Town Artisan Cheese
4309 County Road #8
R. R. #4
Picton, ON
K0K 2T0

Phone: 613-476-5755
Fax: 613-476-5855
Toll Free: 1-800-5th-Town (1-800-584-8696) 

Not so long ago, gastrophobes,  critics of our industrial food system were saying things like we should have to PAY more for food then we'd respect it more or eat less of it or point to some other moral designed to make us feel guilty about eating at all....

But as food prices continue to rise all over the world and the price of rice -  the staple food for 4 billion of the 6 billion people on the planet - doubling in the past year, the gastrophobes have been blessedly silent.   Maybe they're realizing that ANY food is better than NO food.

Didn't think it was possible to capture the blood orange's fugitive taste in a cake, but All the Best  manages it in a palely rusty pound cake with a transparent pink glaze. A transient delight to be sampled before blood oranges vanish....