Seattle Cheese Festival Scholarship
The Seattle Cheese Festival Scholarship is awarded every year to an individual seeking an education in cheesemaking or looking to enhance one’s cheesemaking skills. We are currently accepting scholarship applications for 2010. Simply complete this application
and submit by May 30, 2010. We will be announcing the winner on June 15th, 2010.
Michelle Lancaster of Ferndale, Washington, was the 2008 Seattle Cheese Festival Scholarship recipient. Many of you have asked how Michelle is doing these days – what’s she up to now? Well, here’s a nice letter from her giving us an update on her cheesemaking career.
Hello!
I just wanted to update you on where I have been since receiving your scholarship to attend the WSU Artisan Cheesemaking Shortcourse last February. In May, my husband and I had to sell most of our cows and shut down our dairy due to the downslide of the dairy industry. We brought one trailer of 14 Jersey dairy cattle with us to the East Coast where my husband and I had to relocate so that he could work in a family business (and actually be able to pay bills!) I came along too, but did not have a job. Within a few weeks, we had made the decision to move, packed and stored away our belongings, rented out our home and farm, and traveled across the country.
When we arrived in Maryland, I looked online and found some people in our nearby area that owned Jersey cows also. I contacted the only creamery in the area and was invited down to visit them. The owners, Holly and Eric Foster, gave us a full tour of their new facility. They then took us out to dinner and by the end of the night, I also had a new job! They are the first creamery in a pilot program with the state of Maryland to produce raw milk cheese within the state! They have been shipping milk to Pennsylvania for it to be made into cheese for the last 5 years. Now, their creamery on site is up and running and we have been making blue cheese for about a month. We just tried our oldest blue cheese and it is promising!
Our website is: www.chapelscreamery.com. We are located in Easton, Maryland on the Eastern Shore. We sell at many markets along the Delaware beach, a Farm Fresh market in Washington D.C. and we also market locally in Easton. Whole Foods in nearby stores has picked up their cheddar cheeses and is beginning to take their cave aged cheeses now! Cowgirl Creamery also has their cheese.
When Holly found out that I had been working for a cheesemaker and that I had taken a Cheesemaking course through WSU, she was very excited to hire me on and help them with their cheesemaking.
I just wanted to let you know that the scholarship money has meant a lot to me by allowing me to be a part of an industry that I love, doing a job I am excited to do. Each step has allowed me to progress to the point that I am able to continue with my love of the Jersey cow by working for people that have taken milk and turned it into a desirable value-added product that people are excited about.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Michelle Lancaster
