Stinky Is Good

Julia Von De Bur, a San Jose teen with a penchant for "aromatic cheeses," found just what she was looking for and more Saturday at the second annual Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma.

She tasted a half dozen hand-crafted cheeses under the shade of a white tent just outside the Sheraton hotel, and her favorite was the blue cheese from the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.

"Julia in particular likes stinky cheeses," said her mother, Linda Ho. "One of the reasons I wanted to come here was to be able to try a bunch of cheeses and try to remember what they are."

Cultivating cheese connoisseurs like Julia and her mother is the main goal of the weekend festival.

Through tasting sessions and seminars on how artisan cheese is made, how it is combined with other food and how to buy and store it, festival organizers hope to increase the demand for high quality cheeses.

The more they know about artisan cheese, the more people will be willing to pay extra for it, said Ray Bair, a cheese buyer and the owner of Cheese Plus specialty shop in San Francisco.

Bair said cheesemaking has a long history in the North Bay and that the area is perfectly suited for producing artisan cheese because of its abundant farmland for cows and goats, its proximity to the wine industry and the appeal of fine dining in the Bay Area.

The festival focused Saturday on education, with 16 seminars featuring well-known cheesemakers and chefs.

Sue Conley and Peggy Smith of Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station explained how a number of their cheeses were made, including one called St. Pat, a seasonal springtime cheese that's wrapped with stinging nettle leaves.

"It's just kind of echoing what the cows are eating out there," said Smith, adding that after aging, the leaves evoke a smoky artichoke flavor.

Taste is what artisan cheese is all about and there's no limit to a cheesemaker's creativity.

Another featured cheese was called Barely Buzzed, a cow's milk cheese made by the Beehive Cheese Co. in Oregon. The cheese had been hand-rubbed with espresso grounds, and espresso taste grew stronger as you approached the rind.

Lynne Devereux, the festival's associate director and a principal organizer, called the event the "cheese Olympics."

The festival continues today and will focus on sales of artisan cheese, food and wine. The $40 tickets for today's event can be purchased online at www.artisancheese

festival.com/tickets.html.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@

pressdemocrat.com.