Yesterday my husband and I attended the 6th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival, hosted by our own internationally renowned Rogue Creamery and sponsored by the Oregon Cheese Guild. I wrote last year about the bounties I enjoyed while attending this event, and this year proved to be even bigger and better. The size of the tent doubled, as did the number of vendors who offered not only cheese but artisan breads; chocolates; wine; microbrews and local seafood, meats and condiments.

On hand this year were the publishers of two periodicals devoted to the making and consuming of fine cheeses and the authors of four different books on that subject. It would seem that even with a shaky economy, the interest in and support of carefully crafted, high-quality cheeses (and other foodstuffs) has, if anything, grown over the last few years.

As we wandered the booths, sampling a delectable variety of goat, cow and sheep cheeses, we picked up snippets of the cheese-making process and the history of the makers along with those tasty nuggets. One in particular had a fascinating, international pedigree: La Mariposa’s Chubut cheese (a mild, buttery, aged cow’s milk cheese) is created by Mariano Battro, whose family operates a creamery in Argentina’s Patagonian province of Chubut. The area was settled by Welsh immigrants in the 1880s who brought their cheesemaking skills with them, and the region long supported several creameries producing that cheese. Now, La Mariposa in Oregon and Mariano’s father’s creamery in Argentina are the only ones in the world who still do. All I can say is, the world is poorer for not having more, and I am lucky to have a source of it close to home.

Most if not all of the producers of the wonderful foods at yesterday’s event — and those who were there enjoying them — are committed to locally produced food and sustainable agriculture. In a part of the country bursting with the abundance coming from both land and sea, it is easy to support such a philosophy and not have to sacrifice much from one’s menu choices. We picked up a flyer from a Community Supported Agriculture collective (providing boxes of local produce to subscribers on a weekly basis throughout the growing season) and one for Farm to Fork dinners. Each month an area farm hosts the meal prepared by local chefs and inspired by seasonal, regional products. Their mission is to “reconnect people to the true source of their food and increase community awareness about the importance of supporting local & sustainable producers,” while proceeds benefit various local growers and farm organizations. That sounds to me like a winner on all counts, and we’re planning on attending as many as possible this summer.

— Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader