State Fair Dairy Products Competition of 2023

           Very few probably know this, but our state competition for dairy products at the fair is pretty well attended. I think the secret to that lies with the fact that all cheese plants fall under the same inspector and he highly encourages all the Kentucky plants to enter. It's an enormously fun mishmash of small, medium, and large producers, all in one room. Products processed range from fluid milk, to butter and cheese, to yogurt and ice cream. 

       If your favorite cheese is produced in Kentucky, I probably know the producers! And we love them all. If I have a problem or question, I don't think there is anyone who would be afraid to help me. In fact, this summer I struggled with cheese flaws left and right. When I called a fellow cheese maker to ask their advice, they stalled their day and we literally met in a parking lot to taste cheese!

Nikki Roof, head of the cheese department at WKU, took Elora on a tour of the fair between dairy products competitions.

     Cheese can be tricky. I think my biggest frustration is that it can take a long time to find out if a change that was made to solve a problem was successful. Sometimes it takes a few months and sometimes even a year. In the meantime, the milk still comes and I have to make cheese. Realizing sometimes that I could be making a dud cheese because I don't know if I have solved my problem or not, is a bitter pill to take. This summer I threw my goats so many batches of cheese I lost count. I would have to check my books to know. But my pitching arm sure got a lot stronger! (And don't ask me why they eat it....I don't know. But they eat it like they were eating an apple. They love it. So, lots of happy days for them. Me, not so much.)

     Anyway, back to the dairy competition! One of my favorite cheese friends is Nikki Roof. She runs the Western Kentucy University cheese operation. Did you know they still have a dairy right on the university campus? She has been a boon of information and most importantly she makes an effort to network with all of us distracted cheese makers AND the state employees whose job it is to promote Kentucky products. Nikki helps keep all of us informed about what is going on and because she is in communication with her fellow cheese makers, she can articulate our struggles to interested parties at the state and on the community level, all while she runs her own program at WKU and MAKES cheese. I just love this woman!!! It's no wonder why she was unanimously voted in, on the spot, as the Secretary and Treasurer of the Dairy Producers Association of Kentucky by her fellow cheese makers. 

       So far this competition is like the pinnacle of our summers. We bring our cheese and our children. We meet all our good friends and it feels like a family potluck or reunion. Our inspector and the judges are there, and there are soooooo many diary products. Our judges spend the day taking us through the finer details of tasting our own products, pointing out what a flaw tastes like and what the likely causes are. Did you know the lights in the dairy aisle are affecting the way your milk tastes if it is not contained in an opaque container? WOW!

      Then we all line up and taste the difference between the winners in the class and the ones that didn't grade as well. My children particularly enjoy the chocolate milk, ice cream, and yogurt classes!!!

      This year we had a little trick up our sleeves. We entered the same cheese in two different classes. Human beings aren't perfect and we were curious if what the judges were tasting before and after a particular cheese would affect their grading of a cheese. Guess what?! Our cheese graded the same both times it was tasted by the judges, hours apart, in two different classes. I am not here to say that would happen every time, but we were impressed!

    The results? We took home a lot of blue ribbons. (One has to score 8 out of 10 to receive a blue.) AND First PLACE for FARMSTEAD CHEESE!!!!! We took a 100% sheep milk cheese made in the Manchego style. Its a cheese that was 7 years in the making! Seven years of loving and tending our sheep, growing our flock, gathering our equipment, licensing, and practicing cheese making. BIG HAPPY TEARS!!!!