The Cheese Store of San Diego

I apologize I haven't been posting as much was as I used to lately. Life has become pretty crazy the last couple months. He and I started a business which is taking a lot of my free time away.  We are now working 7 days a week. The hardest I have ever worked in my whole life. The business, The Cheese Store of San Diego. My weekends are filled with selling cheese at farmers markets! Yes selling cheese. I have been exploring food for a few years now and after working a holiday job last winter I fell in love with cheese. I was always interested in it but didn't know if I wanted to pursue a career in it. A little voice always whispering in my mind that I am now listening to and an interest I always had that I am now following. You might ask...why cheese? I love cheese and I love how a really good cheese makes me feel. I love the stories behind each cheese and the makers and relaying them to my customers. I see the excitement on the faces of my customers who try a cheese that hits them in the right spot. Its what I am loving the most about this new business.

It's hard work selling cheese. We have an extensive long list of imported and domestic artisan cheeses to pick from every week. I research them for hours while trying to put my order together and write a newsletter that we distribute once a week.  Once the cheese is delivered the real work begins. We get to taste every wheel after the first cut and that is always an exciting and fun moment. Its amazing how wheels taste different from week to week. The prepping and cutting of the cheese is the hardest work of all. Each cheese is different and has its own personality. Each one needs to be cared for differently from the next as well as cut differently and many of them have a mind of their own and can be super frustrating at times. The hard cheeses that take all my muscle to cut and the soft cheese that are ripening and oozing as I cut them makes it quite difficult to pick up to wrap in cheese paper. The thin paper that needs to be unwrapped from a cheese that gets stuck to the bloomy rind (Leonora) which I have to carefully pick off with a pairing knife and determine if I am picking off paper or the delicate rind. Thank goodness that cheese maker has now decided to wrap Leonora with plastic straws...made a world of a difference the last time I ordered it! I was all mentally prepared and ready to peal away with my pairing knife and I was pleasantly surprised when I easily peeled away straws to unveil a beautiful bloom of a rind!

 We cut, we wrap,  we weigh, we price, we dice samples, and we study everything there is to know about the cheese we are offering that weekend.  We don't know all there is to know about every cheese in the world but we are learning so much every week. I think it would take a life time to learn everything but I am ready to learn it all. 

Cheese is a living thing. Like a person,  or a personality. If its not cared for properly and and paid attention to it wont survive. Some are beautiful in sight and taste. Some are not so beautiful in sight or smell but tastes incredible...hey, don't judge a book by its cover right?!?

 I am enjoying this journey in my life. Its hard work but its worth it. Doing something I love. Finally! 

Come and visit us.

The Cheese Store of San Diego
Find us on facebook here

Saturday Golden Hill Farmers Market 9:30am-1:30pm

Sunday La Jolla Open Aire Farmers Market 9am-1:00pm