Today it is 10 years since I posted the first post at OSTEPERLER.NO. It was not all that long, and it was in English. OSTEPERLER started out as “TASTEFUL MOMENTS”, has changed to “CHEESE AND YOU” before we ended up as OSTEPERLER, and we’re going to stay OSTEPERLER. Literally speaking OSTEPERLER means “cheese pearls” or more appropriate “cheese gems”.
Before launching the site we had decided it should be all about raw milk cheese, more to narrow the scope of the site rather than a strong belief. That belief has strongly grown upon me as time has gone by. It is a belief that will not weaken and is also the reason I say all raw milk is unpasteurised, but not all unpasteurised milk is raw. I think it is an important distinction and do live well with some thinking it is very nerdy.
OSTEPERLER is about raw milk cheese, not all of them, fortunately they are still numerous even though being threaten every day. Not all of them is just a matter of management, it is not possible to keep track or handle, but when I get hold of a raw milk cheese gem, from wherever it hails, I will of course tell you about it.
First in English, then Norwegian and now back to English. English gives me more air to breathe. Naturally there have been ups and downs. There have times when I have decided to close down OSTEPERLER, no real decisions any of them it turns out, but real enough at the time. Sometimes you need to go for a walk and think matters through. Not a gold mine at all, but my purpose has been to teach the world a little bit about raw milk cheese mostly from a hedonistic point of view. What makes cheeses look, taste and smell different. I am not political, I do not ask for samples and it is rare cheesemakers send me any. I am content with that. Gives me an integrity I feel is important.
But as mentioned above, I do have strong views on the matter of raw versus pasteurised. It is about keeping all of milk’s natural elements intact. For flavour, identity, for biodiversity and a lot more I am sure, but also the more natural processes during cheesemaking the better. Cheese is processed milk however you view it, but nature provides all we need to make excellent cheese, so why not just use it?
Thanks for hanging in, and Here’s to the next 10!
