Beehive Cheese Employee Wins National Cheese Award
As part of the scholarship, she will share what she learns with other cheesemakers at the 2014 American Cheese Society Conference in Sacramento, Calif.
Jess has worked at Beehive Cheese for more than a year. She has an undergraduate degree in organic chemistry, and earned a master’s degree in cheese chemistry from Utah State University.
She told me she initially wanted to be a veterinarian, but realized how time-consuming it was after working at a large veterinarian clinic near Portland, Maine. She then wanted to be involved in the dairy industry, and found a job at the Silvery Moon Creamery in Maine.
“It was a very small micro-dairy, making artisan cheese, and that’s what opened me to the cheese world. I’ve never looked back,” she said.”Cheese people are fun, they care about what you eat and about their products.”
Her award was announced at the 2013 American Cheese Society Conference in Madison, Wis. It is named for Daphne Zepos, a Greek-born author, chef, educator and cheese lover. She was a co-owner of the Cheese School of San Francisco, and wrote articles about cheese for The Atlantic magazine.
In her vision statement to the Daphne Zepos selection committee, Perrie wrote that she wants to explore the connection between Spanish Basque tradition and the American West, since roughly 57,000 Basque immigrants live in the Western states. She hopes to learn about the Basque region’s 4,000 years of cheesemaking tradition, including the famed Idiazabal cheese, made from whole unpasteurized sheep’s milk.
“It’s important to protect and preserve the connection we have through sustainable, traditional methods,” she wrote.”Sharing traditions keeps them alive.”
My story in the Standard-Examiner talks more about the award and Perrie’s vision statement.