Blog
Certification, education, advocacy, events, industry news and the members behind them — written by the Federation, for the people who make, age, sell and buy the cheese.
A strange bottom to the cheese market
Six weeks into the food-service shutdown, wholesale cheese prices are showing the first signs of steadying. We look at what's holding the case together and what isn't.
Read postPortland in July is moving online
The 2020 ICF Annual Conference will not be held in Portland this July after all. It will be held everywhere, on a screen, and here's what that changes…
Read postThe counter that moved to the curb
A cheesemonger who built her business on tasting-room conversation had to sell the same cheese to customers she'd never let past the sidewalk. It worked anyway.
Read postTwo cheese cases pulling apart
Farm milk prices fell to levels most members have never priced against, even as cheese piled up in coolers with nowhere to go. Here's why both things are…
Read postOne pair of hands in the cave
One member is the only person still turning wheels in her creamery's aging room this month. We asked her what changes when a cave loses its rotation of…
Read postWhen test centers close
With third-party testing centers shut through the spring, here's what that means for members mid-way through a credential and how rescheduling actually works.
Read postStill on the calendar, for now
Our in-person goat and sheep milk workshop is still on the calendar for late May. Here's how we're deciding whether that holds, and how we'll tell you if…
Read postReading the relief loan's fine print
A new federal small-business loan program opened applications this week, and several members asked us the same question: does a creamery actually qualify, and for what.
Read postA make sheet at the kitchen table
An apprentice who lost her workshop seat this month didn't lose the coursework — she moved it to a laptop propped against the flour tin, and finished the…
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