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Janet Fletcher

180 Stonecrest Dr
Napa, CA, 94558
(707) 265-0404
{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

Janet Fletcher

  • Home
  • About
    • About Janet
    • Media
    • Client List
    • Contact
  • Planet Cheese
    • Planet Cheese Blog
    • Planet Cheese Signup
    • Cheese Library
  • Store
    • All Items
    • World Cheese Tour
    • Books
  • Classes
    • World Cheese Tour Classes
    • Other Classes & Events
    • Custom Class/Event Request
    • Cheese O'Clock Video Archive
  • Recipes
    • Spring
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Born in the U.S.A.

May 1, 2024 janet@janetfletcher.com

Needless to say, it’s never not American Cheese Month at my house. But in May it’s official. This is the month when cheese merchants give American cheeses extra love—with tastings, cheesemaker appearances, special pricing and other incentives to get you in the store and buying domestic. Keep your eyes out for any festivities or promotions where you shop.

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In From: U.S. Tags American Cheese Month, American cheese, Monterey Jack, cottage cheese, Good Culture Cottage Cheese, Widmer’s Cheese, brick cheese
16 Comments

Keep Your Eyes on These Five

July 18, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com

The American Cheese Society’s 40th conference is underway this week in Des Moines, with nonstop tastings and educational sessions and—always a highlight—the awards ceremony for the competition winners. I’ll report next week on the victors, but I’m betting on five newish creameries, in particular, to bring home some ribbons. Four of the five have been making cheese for less than 10 years and the fifth is only a year older. With their consistently top-notch output, these newcomers give me hope for the future of American artisan cheesemaking.

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Tags Face Rock Creamery, Stepladder Creamery, Pennyroyal Farm, Mystic Cheese, Goat Rodeo Farm, American cheese, American Cheese Society
4 Comments

Oozy Does It

October 25, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com

With November around the corner, we’re entering the ooey-gooey season. Fall is prime time for those unctuous, bark-wrapped cheeses that spread like buttercream frosting, and this year we have a new one to celebrate. It took more than three years to get this beauty through R&D. Turns out the style presents all sorts of hurdles.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, California cheese, American cheese, bark-wrapped cheese, spruce bark, Quinta, bloomy-rind cheese
2 Comments

Fresh Sheep Cheese is Rye Bread Ready

April 26, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com
Fresh sheep cheese on rye bread

With May on the horizon, it’s prime time for fresh sheep cheese. The ewes are back on the job after some winter R&R and they are giving their all right now. To manage the surge of spring milk, a few creameries produce a soft, rindless, spreadable sheep cheese that I vastly prefer to fresh chèvre. This category hardly existed a decade ago. Now your favorite cheese counter should have (or can get) at least one of these lovelies. Slathered on whole-grain toast, stuffed in pasta, dolloped on pizza…what an endlessly useful cheese.

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In Milk: Sheep Tags sheep cheese, toast, fresh cheese, American cheese, Bellwether Farms, Green Dirt Farm, Hidden Springs Creamery, Shepherds Way Farm, Nettle Meadow, Icelandic rye bread, rye bread, rúgbrauð
6 Comments

Hello Gorgeous!

May 11, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 578 _DSC4104.jpg

Could cheese get any prettier? This new beauty from Jasper Hill Farm gets top marks for appearance (from me, at least) and extra credit for being made with raw milk. Plus, it’s a mixed-milk blue—half cow, half goat—a rare taste experience. Jasper Hill has already proven its blue expertise with the exquisite Bayley Hazen. Has this Vermont creamery nailed yet another one?

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat, Milk: Mixed Tags Jasper Hill Farm, American Cheese Month, blue cheese, American cheese, American artisan cheese, Vermont, Vermont cheese, mixed-milk cheese
6 Comments

Top Cheese Merchant Looks Ahead

May 5, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Anne Saxelby/Photo: Christine Han

Anne Saxelby/Photo: Christine Han

She’s a superstar of American cheese, sourcing the best from around the country for her acclaimed Manhattan shop and wholesale business. Pre-pandemic, Anne Saxelby supplied cheese to almost every New York City restaurant that cared about serving the best. But what a year. “Our two biggest revenue streams just disappeared overnight,” says Saxelby, the founder of Saxelby Cheesemongers. Given that May is American Cheese Month, I wanted to hear her views on how the pandemic has changed the cheese landscape. And, of course, I asked her to curate a cheese board featuring three American cheeses she’s loving right now.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat, Milk: Sheep Tags Anne Saxelby, Saxelby Cheesemongers, American cheese, American Cheese Month
1 Comment

New Blue to Dream About

January 19, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 70 _DSC2792.jpg

Do you eat more blue cheese in winter? I know I do. That big, spicy flavor is what I want when it’s cold outside. I love it melted on polenta, crumbled in an escarole and radicchio salad with walnuts, or on a cheese board after a bowl of vegetable soup. So this new blue from New York landed in my kitchen at just the right time. I think it’s dreamy, and even my husband—not a blue-cheese enthusiast—gave it a rave.

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In Milk: Sheep, From: U.S., Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat Tags blue cheese, mixed-milk cheese, New York cheese, Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, Old Chatham, American cheese, American artisan cheese
4 Comments

Crazy Good

July 21, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 33 _DSC1560.jpg

The cheeses I crave most in summer are light, fresh, moist and milky. They have no rind or just the merest one. Their flavor is bright, lactic, buttermilky. They go with rosé, crisp white wines, wheat beers and kölsch, which pretty much describes my beverage menu right now. Mozzarella makes the list, of course. Burrata. Feta. And now, moving straight to the top, is this new-to-me charmer, Melinda Mae. I’m crazy for it and you will be, too.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Melinda Mae, Mystic Cheese, American cheese, summer cheese
2 Comments

Hoping for More

July 7, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 19 _DSC1450.jpg

For me, the life-changing cheese from the four Cheese O’Clock tastings I did in May with Laura Werlin was Shepherd’s Hope. I could not get enough of this moist, tender sheep’s milk wheel. I inhaled it. And then wanted more. Shepherd’s Hope would be a staple in my fridge—alongside the feta and the pecorino romano—if only I could get my hands on it easily. But Shepherd’s Way Farms, the Minnesota producer, is small, with limited distribution. Fortunately, if you would like to try this completely original and addictive cheese, I know where you can find it.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Sheep Tags Minnesota cheese, sheep cheese, Shepherd’s Way Farms, American cheese, Victory Cheese
Comment

Happier Happy Hours

May 11, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 33 _DSC1218.jpg

Are you doing as many virtual Happy Hours as I am? I’m enjoying how easy it is to “meet” friends for a drink, but the bar menu is pitiful. My husband and I hoarded pistachios when this madness got started, but I’m getting a little bored with them. Knowing how desperate our cheesemakers are to sell their fresh cheeses, I decided to challenge myself to make some bar bites with ingredients on hand. I did have to purchase the cheese, but all the toppings were foraged from the fridge, garden and pantry. You can do this.

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In From: U.S. Tags American cheese, fresh cheese, happy hour, bruschetta, crostini, toast, Nicasio Valley, Cheese O’Clock, Laura Werlin
4 Comments
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     Photographs: Douglas Fletcher, Ed Anderson, Megan Clouse, Faith Echtermeyer, Eva Kolenko,
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