Sustainable Organic Cheese

Ange: Welcome to Le Gourmet TV. We’re doing a little bit of cheese here and I have Canada’s cheese guru here, Gurth Pretty. Welcome Gurth. Gurth: Thank you Ange. Ange: I wanted to ask you a little bit about what’s going on in Canada when it comes to cheese and from an organic standpoint, where does that put us? Gurth: Well, definitely the entire cheese industry is really growing. We’ve got some great artisan cheese makers starting out in many different provinces. Organic, it’s mostly in Quebec in Southern BC but definitely, there’s an interest more right across the country. It just takes a while for the cheese makers to be able to find a good source of milk that is certified organic, start producing the cheese, and then getting it out into the markets. Ange: So I guess that’s the difference between the regular cheese and the organic cheese, is they’re looking for the organic milk and the ingredients that go into cheese. Gurth: Exactly, yes. Ange: So obviously, if the milk is organic, that it means the cows need to be organic or—how does that? Gurth: Everything, the feed has to be organic, there has to be no hormones given to the animals whether a cow, goat, or sheep, and it’s a step-by-step procedure to making sure that all of the ingredients in the cheese, including the salt is organic because there are four major ingredients in making cheese—milk, salt, coagulation agent, and bacteria, so all of those have to be organic, certified organic for the cheese to be considered organic. Ange: So then if—obviously, Canada has got some really great organic cheese. We make some pretty amazing cheese here in Canada. Gurth: Can I swear we make some kickass cheese? Ange: We definitely make some kickass cheese. We make some kickass wines, too. Gurth: Right, yes. Ange: If you were to pick sort of a cheese that we would showcase as our flagship cheese, what would that be? Gurth: Oh boy! You're putting me on the spot now. Ange: That’s what gurus do. Gurth: That’s right. Well, let me think about a little grasshopper. I’d say one of the top cheese that I really enjoy is called the—it comes from Quebec and it’s made by a smaller dairy cooperative where there are only ten farmers. And they just use the milk from those ten farmers to produce this really nice, almost a double—kind of like a triple cream brie. That’s a really good cheese. On the organic side, wow, there’s a great one out in BC called Jerseyland Organics and they make a really outstanding Asiago Cheese with the organic Jersey milk. Ange: So if you were to match some local cheese and local wine, what would be your favorite picks? Gurth: Well, the classics would be matching the wine that’s also made in the same region as the cheese. Right now, it’s a really good one. It’s from Fifth Town Artisan Cheese out in Prince Edward County. It’s just officially about to open up and having whether a Geisenheim or a Riesling. Prince Edward County would go really well. If it’s from say the Niagara Peninsula Comfort Cream made by Upper Canada Cheese with I’d say Henry of Pelham Riesling would be a really good choice to go with it. Ange: Nice! Well, thank you very much. I know that you have a fabulous book. You can tell us a little bit about the book. Gurth: Well, I got both of my books, The Definitive Guide to Canadian Artisanal and Fine Cheese, which came out in the fall of 2006. I actually just won an award in London as being the best cheese book in the world for 2007. The eight other books submitted, so I was really pleased and honored with that. Ange: So you are Canada’s cheese guru. Gurth: I am Canada’s cheese guru officially internationally now. My second book, The Definitive Canadian Wine and Cheese Cookbook came out last fall and co-written with Tony Aspler and that’s still doing really great in the bookstores. Ange: Well, that’s amazing. Thank you very much. Gurth: Thank you very much for inviting me, Ange. Ange: I’m sure we’ll enjoy some more cheese and wine together. Gurth: Definitely! Ange: Cheers! Thanks Gurth! Gurth: Cheers!