A few quick updates:

I neglected to mention a while back that I interviewed for the RFFP/Cheese Guild position. I still haven’t heard back, though I have heard that I’m one of two candidates being considered. It’s been a few weeks since the interview, so I think they probably went with the other person. Really, that’s fine. I have a feeling it would be a lot of work for very little money.

I also spoke with Jonathan at Bobolink about doing a month-long, full-time apprenticeship at the farm in the spring. It sounds like this could really happen. If all goes as planned I’ll be there from May 15th or so—that way he has time to get things running smoothly after milking resumes (around april 15th). It’ll be tough to do money-wise, but Kari and I think a month will be feasible. At the end, I should have a good idea whether or not this is something I really want to do with my life. I should also have a fair idea about how to get started on this myself. That’s the goal, anyway.

I don’t see much cheese activity happening between now and May. I think it’s time to start serious research. I need to know how much money I need to start this thing up. I also need to read up on running a small dairy farm. I’m pretty sure I’ve ruled out cows. Now I just need to decide on goats vs. sheep—or just outsourcing milk. I’m leaning towards sheep, mainly because I’m not the biggest fan of goat’s milk cheese, especially fresh chevre-style cheese; it’s fine, but boring. Maybe aged goat’s milk would be ok, though.

Anyway, if anyone knows of good books or other resources, please send them my way. Thanks.

Since spending the day at Bobolink, I’ve worked with Jonathan twice at Union Square Farmer’s Market. The first time I went was Jonathan’s first time at that market. He also sells at a bunch of other NYC farmer’s markets, but I’m pretty sure that USQ is the biggest of the bunch. The second time was the monday before Thanksgiving. Both times the amount of business he did was quite amazing. Customer traffic was literally non-stop the whole time.

I’m not sure how much we sold each day, but I think it was somewhere in the order of 6 or 7 full wheels plus a bunch of the individual pyramids. The wheels are 10-20 lbs each (depending on the type of cheese) and sell at $20/lb, so that’s a couple thousand bucks in a day. Not bad, really - and quite encouraging. I think it really helps to have such convenient access to NYC. I’d think that the market for expensive, fancy cheese is bigger here than just about anywhere in the country.

Bobolink has been getting a very decent amount of press, having been mentioned recently in the NY Times, New York Magazine, The Bergen Record (NJ paper), The Today Show, and more. The last time I was with him at the farmer’s market, Chef Dan Barber from Bluehill was taping a segment for Nightline on locally produced foods for the Thanksgiving table. He spent a lot of time talking to Jonathan, but unfortunately we were cut from the show.