Cheesemakers in Florida

When we began looking to learn more about the new American cheese, it seemed logical to begin close to home. Alas, our inquiries got us nowhere. "There are no cheesemakers in Florida," we heard, and we were offered varying reasons why making cheese had never become a Florida tradition.

We were eventually fortunate to meet local dairymen at our farmers market who make and sell goat milk cheeses. Neither pasteurized nor aged, their cheeses are technically not salable as food for people and must be labeled "not for human consumption." We were happy to have found them and enjoy their cheese, but wondered where were the other kinds of new cheesemakers we had met in Vermont, New York state, and Canada. They were producing pasteurized or aged raw milk cheeses that met all government food safety regulations.

Just as The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses was about to go off to the printer we began finding them. First we learned of a Florida dairy in nearby Live Oak selling farmstead cheeses in local markets. From them we learned of other new cheesemakers starting up in Winter Park, Florida; their cheeses had only just begun to reach the marketplace. And through the folks at the Winter Park Dairy we learned of a new creamery in Hawthorne, Florida, only 15 miles from Gainesville and so new that its first cheeses were just getting ready for sale.

A brief section on the Winter Park Dairy did make its way into our book, but timing was tight and we weren't able to include the others. We may have more to say about them in future blogs. For now we are pleased to display their labels and report that the Wainwright Dairy and the Cypress Point Creamery are producing great cheeses that are available in locally owned grocery stores and farmers markets in the Gainesville area.

Redevelopment of the J&L Site

For those who missed it, the Watertown Daily Times reported in early October that St. Lawrence County had given permission for redevelopment of 31.5 "minimally contaminated" acres of the 54-acre Benson Mines site. Remediation of the remaining 22.5 acres had long kept the entire acreage off limits to reuse. Even funds for assessing the problem had been difficult to obtain. There had been talk of a possible wood chipping operation locating there. Any new economic activity would seem to be a plus for the hard-pressed community.

Ruins of the sinter plant in 2008

(The remaining part of the sinter plant shown in the photo is no more than one-quarter of the structure that existed when I worked there for all or parts of the summers of 1962-1965. My experiences in the plant were important in my decision to write Gem of the Adirondacks.)

The Marshes from Shell Mound

Gulf Coast Salt Marshes from Shell Mound 10/17/2010

This photo, made from Shell Mound on Levy County, Florida's Gulf Coast, shows low and high salt marshes. The low marsh, farthest from Shell Mound and closest to open water, is an irregular light-colored band of smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). Closer in is a wide expanse of the darker black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus). This pattern repeats in many coastal areas. Smooth cordgrass is more tolerant of flooding. It traps sediments and raises the level of the marsh, moving its edge toward open water. By raising the level of soil, it creates habitat suitable for the needlerush.

The shell mound is a several thousand year old Indian midden covering five acres and rising 28 feet above mean sea level. It and the surrounding marshes are protected by the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.

Somebody Must Know This Plant

Here's a plant I photographed last Sunday. It was growing on the slopes of the "shell mound," a 6,000 year old midden composed mainly of oyster shells piled up by paleo-Indians. My efforts to identify this small tree have so far come to nothing. It is fairly distinctive and seems like it should be easy.

In Awe of Poison Ivy

We are never pleased to encounter poison ivy. We do see it every day on our regular hikes and we exterminate plants when they show up in our yards in Florida, both in the verdant central peninsula and in a dune-like site on the Gulf Coast. How does it do that? How can a plant be so successful and so persistent in so many varied habitats?

It seems to follow us everywhere. We were warned to stay away from it while growing up in the Adirondacks of northern New York State, Russ had painful brushes with it doing field work in Pennsylvania and Kansas, we tried to avoid having its leaves brush our eyes as we canoed through a forested swamp in South Carolina, and we marveled at six-inch diameter vines climbing aged tuliptrees while we worked on a box turtle study in a floodplain forest in Maryland. The USDA plants database shows its range extending from Hudson Bay on the north to south Florida, and we have heard it also extends into Mexico. A 1924 paper we came across cites its range limits as 15 to 50 degrees north latitude and 62 to 125 degrees west latitude. In more familiar terms that would include the area from Guatemala almost to Hudson Bay, and from Nova Scotia to the West Coast of North America. We are certain we will see it as we paddle the lower Suwannee.

What a plant and what adaptations! True, it is adaptable in growth form, occurring as a shrub, a ground-hugging vine, and a climbing vine like those towering ones we saw in Maryland. We suspect its toxin has much to do with its success, however. Humans are said to be uniquely susceptible to its poison, but it is likely that most animals are deterred from eating the leaves. We do know that birds find the berry-like fruits delectable and suffer no apparent harm from them. They carry the seeds far and wide.

Photographed 10/11/2010 near our home in north central Florida

On the edge of a Gulf Coast salt marsh, near Cedar Key 10-17-2010

Poison ivy is not our friend and we will never be happy to come across it in the field, but we will see it for what it is and give it grudging admiration as a uniquely successful plant.

Baby Steps into the Wetlands

In preparation for the Suwannee project I dug out some old books, including Common Marsh Plants of the United States and Canada and Underwater and Floating-Leaved Plants of the United States and Canada, both written more than 40 years ago by U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Neil Hotchkiss. Wanting more, I bought a copy of Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of the Southeastern United States by Ralph Tiner. It is a good one. I also bought another tree guide, Native Trees of the Southeast by Kirkman et. al. I am disappointed that I have yet to find two tree guides that agree on certain questions that have been vexing me. I feel I will have little trouble identifying the animals; I know the birds, mammals, and herps reasonably well, and suspect that paddlers will be likely to encounter only the best-known kinds of fishes.

Black Mangroves and Marsh near Cedar Key

We will be hoping to take to the waterways soon, but in the meantime we can do some coastal exploration on foot when we are in the Cedar Key area. Before then we can begin to learn about freshwater wetland plants close to home, as we encounter wetlands almost every day in our walks.

A One-of-a-Kind Gift

We got this 10-pound cheese wheel as a gift for Peg's aunt. Ten pounds is a lot of cheese, and we expect that Aunt Pat will be sharing it with the many friends and family members who will be attending her 90th birthday celebration. A product of Hawthorne Florida's Cypress Point Creamery, it was made from roughly 100 pounds of the farm's own raw Jersey cow milk. The cheese was made on July 9, 2010 and will be aged just three months when the party-goers get to sample it.