Hook’s Cheese Company (in Wisconsin, of course) has had the patience to age a 15-year-old cheddar. They started in 1994 with 5,200 pounds of cheddar that they sold chunks of at 10 and 12 years. 1,200 pounds were kept for the 15 year mark as they found the flavor to be developing well. Limited quantities are still available — at the steep price of $50 per pound. But another batch is not far behind and will be ready in March 2010.
It’s so cold in the Seattle area that a Port Orchard family sent in a photo of their cat’s water bowl to a local news station. It had frozen overnight with a strange spike of ice sticking out of the top. Ice spikes are created when the surface of the water freezes first. The water underneath causes a crack to form in the top as it also freezes and expands. As that water dribbles out and freezes, an upwards spike is formed. Neat!
Lady Washington is a replica of an 18th century merchant sloop, also called Lady Washington. Built in Aberdeen, Washington, she’s appeared in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and “Star Trek Generations.” Her crew is accustomed to wintering over in Sacramento, California’s sunny weather, but her diesel engine (yup, they don’t sail everywhere) no longer meets California’s emission standards. So they’re stuck in Washington’s cold, wet winter hoping to raise money for the $100,000 replacement engine. An anonymous benefactor has already provided 78% of the funds.
Can peanuts be grown in Washington state? CB’s Nuts is endeavoring to find local sources for Pacific Northwest peanut lovers. The salmonella outbreak and resulting peanut recall made several small food producers realize they were several steps removed from the original source of their peanut ingredients. Some suppliers even refused to reveal where their peanuts were from, citing competitive issues. CB’s is working with local researchers and farmers to see if peanuts can become a successful crop here.
The Obamas’ first state dinner takes place on Tuesday and honors India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The secrecy surrounding the event planning can go only so far when a gigantic tent can be seen on the South Lawn of the White House, a guest chef has been brought in, and an estimated 400 guests have received engraved invitations. The Prime Minister’s vegetarian diet will certainly inform the menu and Chef Marcus Samuelsson of New York’s Aquavit has been invited to join the line led by White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford. Details about the china selection, flower arrangements, and other pertinent trappings will be revealed by the First Lady to both the press and twenty girls from her high school mentoring program on Tuesday afternoon. The Obama Foodorama blog has continuing coverage (and the press credentials to help keep it first-hand and accurate).
Kerry Taylor Auctions’ next sale on December 8th will include a collection of clothes that belonged to Audrey Hepburn. They are, strictly speaking, hand-me-downs that she gave to her longtime friend Tanja Star Busmann after she was done with them. Also included is the wedding dress made for Hepburn’s planned nuptials to James Hanson which she called off. At her request, the dress, created by the Fontana sisters, was given to a “beautiful, poor Italian girl.” The bride kept it in a box for her happily married life and it was recently recovered for a Fontana retrospective.
Take (insane) rally car racer Ken Block’s tricked out Subaru WRX STI, replace the tires with snow cat tracks, crank it up to 400 horsepower, and you’ve got the “ultimate backcountry shred car.” It’s called the TRAK STI and it was supposedly outed in a YouTube video earlier this year, then was officially announced this month along with the requisite official YouTube video of Block going nuts in the snow.
Connecticut has reduced the marketing budget for its Commission on Culture and Tourism to $1, down from $4.3 million. Local tourist spots such as the Mark Twain House and the Goodspeed Opera House are looking at increasing their own marketing. The casinos (I still can’t believe my home state has 3 huge casinos) have been hit hard as gamblers are putting down less. At the tourism office they’ll be depending a lot more on Visit Connecticut! website updates. Maybe they should put that $1 in the nickel slots.
Chinese mycologist Shu Chun Teng studied at Cornell in the 1920s and, after returning to his native country, “spent the next decade traveling on horseback gathering molds, lichens, yeasts, rusts and morels in the forests, fields and marshes of his homeland.” During the Japanese invasion he had his collection smuggled to the United States. He was punished during the Cultural Revolution for his dealings with foreign countries and died in 1970. Last week Teng was honored at a ceremony at the Chinese Academy of Sciences where the President of Cornell University returned the vast collection of fungi to China. Teng’s daughter is certain that her father would be happy that it was back home.