MAINE CHEESE GUILD Minutes of meeting @ Deb Hahn's February 23, 2004

Next Meeting: Date: Monday, April 5, 2004 Time: 10:00-2:00 Place: Appleton Creamery Subjects: See the kids! See Caitlin's newly refurbished cheeseroom! Discuss Cheese Festival issues. Elect a replacement Board member for Pat Spinney.

MCG folks filled Deb Hahn's pleasant kitchen on Feb 23rd, snacking on her scrumpteous sticky buns as well as a wonderful selection of cheeses, including some of those masterpieces we made at the Peter Dixon workshop and carefully aged since then in various members caves.

Several of us had brought samples of the packaging we use and discussed the pros and cons of each. It was an interesting and informative sharing session. For those of you who didn't bring stuff and want to share info and resources about packaging, herbs, equipment, etc, please email Cathe or Caitlin who will be putting together a resource list.

We all enjoyed our tours through Deb's compact and efficient cheeseroom as well as her cave, which is filled with lovely cheeses. Thanks, Deb.

Present: Cathe Morrill, Eric Rector, Heidi Klingelhofen, Joel Tripp, Deb Hahn, Shannon Thomas, Rick & Sherry Chattick, Scott Gardner, Jennifer Betancourt, Jean Koons, Anne Bossi, Bob Bowen, Gary Anderson, Jane Rosco [Marasco], Ward [Wanda] Thomas.

Cheese Festival- We voted to accept the Portland Public Markets offer of holding the 2004 Cheese Festival there on October 16th.

Our suggestions for the chef cheese ingredient competition: Pasta & cheese and/or Hors d'oeuvres. We felt it would be a good idea to sell separate tickets for each workshop, limiting the number of tickets to the number of spaces available. Deb has concerns about using buttons for sampling as it would be hard to police those without buttons. We need to ask Kris about her experiences with this.

We need to have our ideas for festival activities in by the end of June. Current suggestions: an author reading for children, guess the weight of a cheese wheel, milking/livestock demo (need to find livestock people willing and able to do this), milk tasting, artificial cow (Perry Ells knows location of this critter), display of cheese books and/or cheesemaking equipment, possibly sell cheese books and/or cookbooks as a fundraiseer (Jennifer will contact Border Books to see if they are willing to provide books. Also need to ask PPM if that would be OK), show New England Dairy Promotion Board video (Jennifer has a copy), cheesemaking demos, presentations on cheese/wine pairings, cooking with cheeses (by a chef?) maybe following the theme of the chef competition. Could use cheese sampler baskets as prizes. It was suggested to use a big mirror or video screen for some events for better visibility.

PPM will handle the publicity, but we need to pay attention to where we would like to see it, such as in the MOFGA paper and fairbook,, which needs the info by July. Would PPM pay for these ads? Also, someone should get the chefs' association and Maine merchants' assoc mailing lists for publicity.

Eric recommends having around 14 volunteers to help so we need to be asking people who might be interested.

Agreed to have the next meeting with PPM after our April meeting, which is on April 5th at Caitlin's.

Kathy Biss Workshop - A two day workshop will be held in Maine the week after Easter, fee to be determined and to be paid by each person attending. She will also do on-farm consults. There was discussion about where to hold these, some thought having one day in Augusta and the other at State of Maine Cheese. Cathe will discuss this with Caitlin. Further info will be forthcoming. [The Kathy Biss workshop is a three day affair, April 14-16 at State of Maine Cheese Co.]

Other Business: Heidi suggested participating in the New England Products Trade Show as an activity for MCG in March 2005.

We were saddened to hear that the Spinney's are selling their farm. Deb will contact Clayton to see if they have anything they want to sell. Do not contact Pattie. Also, with regret we decided that we need to replace Pat on the Board which we will do at the April meeting if there is a quorum.

Participation in The Maine Boats & Harbor Show on August 13-15 was suggested as a possible MCG activity. Cost of an in-tent table is $450, but Cathe will see if we could get a lower price.

We discussed the need for a small size of the MCG poster for farmers market tables, etc, as well as stickers for restaurants and stores. Heidi will work on this and find out costs of printing from Caitlin. We will decide at the April meeting whether we want to proceed with this.

Also discussed having a small MCG hand-out with our website on it for use at markets, festivals, etc. And/or aprons, canvas bags, etc. Heidi will investigate costs involved in fabric and printing (including Liberty Graphics). Jane will investigate Coops that are selling reasonably priced bags.

The HAACP Program is coming to Maine via the U. of Connecticut. Check the website for further info. [See Events ]

Peter Dixon will be doing a cheese program in Maine through Coastal Enterprises. Contact person there is Kerri Sands, 479-1489. [The Maine weekend with Peter Dixon is in Vermont. CEI is spearheading this effort and is organizing transportation.]

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