What could be more French than a glass of chenin blanc or a funky Normandy cider accompanying oozing ripe camembert, slathered liberally over a hunk of fresh buttered baguette? To be accredited appellation d'origine contrôlée in France, that camembert would have to be made with unpasteurised (raw) milk.
Meanwhile, in “clean green” New Zealand we produce some of the best milk on the planet, but rather than giving the French a run for their money, our cheesemakers are confronted with quite the opposite regulatory hurdle. While Charles de Gaulle famously stated, “How can anyone be expected to govern a country with 246 cheeses?”, is our government intent on presiding over a country without a single real camembert?
We have just three trailblazing raw milk cheesemakers (all making hard cheeses) in New Zealand: Mount Eliza Cheese and Aroha Organic Goat Cheese in the Bay of Plenty and Cwmglyn Farmhouse Cheese in Eketahuna. Before legislation allowing raw milk cheese production was introduced in 2009, we had had none for a very long time.
But these three are special characters, passionate about what they make – about real artisanal food produced locally. They are determined to operate legitimately, so they’re pleading with Parliament to allow New Zealand to evolve beyond their ongoing regulatory impediments. On the surface the rules allow them to produce their product, but they make it financially impossible for anybody without similar zeal – and who isn’t established enough in life that they have the luxury to pursue work for passion, rather than as a sustainable enterprise – to do so.
from Olivia W’s Blog Rss http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/food-news/88731205/NZ-raw-milk-cheesemakers-face-impossible-hurdles
from
http://oliviawhinham79.tumblr.com/post/157164582151
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