market report

So, there's really nothing unusual to report about this week's Forest Hill Market run. I got many of the usual items... except for a hunk of raw cow's milk cheese from Avery's Branch Farm. Named Sevenwood, it's a very nice hard, washed-rind cheese. The flavor tends more toward sharp and grassy rather than nutty and creamy. A good cheese, but not necessarily a local cheese, I suspect. I don't have firm confirmation on this, but evidence from their web site and other information suggests that they haven't entered the cheesemaking business, just the cheese-selling business. It's unfortunate; after all, the pleasure of buying at the market is buying from a direct connection to the soil on which something was created. Minus that the market simply becomes a bastardization of shopping at a nice grocery store.

Mind you, I'd have no problem if the folks at the dairy readily admitted--the way the Faith Farms people do--that they are not the direct producers of certain products. We'll leave it at that for now.