Death by cheese?

There have been many things on my mind over the last few weeks, and many distractions.   I think I may attempt a year in review some time soon.

Meanwhile, it is true.   You cannot buy young imported cheeses made from raw milk in the U.S., but you can buy an automatic weapon.  Which is more dangerous to your health?

Sorry I can't figure out how to resize this image.

The details are parsed in this article on the Huffpost.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/automatic-weapon-french-cheese-gun-control_n_1696200.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Cheese Touring

Here's a handy resource, the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail Map.

http://www.marineconomicforum.org/images/Map_for_web_crx.pdf

Seems like lately whenever people talk about local cheese they use the overworked term "artisan" or "artisanal" - which seems to mean $20-30 per pound.
I guess I am happy that producers have found people to pay those prices, so that they can earn a living through cheese, but I tend to go to the older places where the prices are better: Vella and Matos.

Marin French Cheese has recently been acquired by a French cheese company, Tians. They promise no changes in the press release:
http://marinfrenchcheese.blogspot.com/2011/04/mfcc-announces-new-owner.html
but any time I hear improvements I figure that means higher prices. I wonder if there will still be bargains at the factory? Tians also owns Laura Chenel, our chevre company before we had so many. The best prices on Sonoma chevre (Presumably Laura Chenel) are, curiously, at Trader Joe's.

Now that we have an official map, I wonder if it will be as much fun to put together cheese tours for my out of town guests?