NPR

Reinventing The Cheese Wheel: From Farmhouse To Factory And Back Again

A new book traces the transatlantic cheese wars that led to the rise of factory cheeses and loss of traditional varietals, and looks at the farmhouse cheesemakers working to restore that lost legacy.
Wheels of Dutch Remeker, a farmhouse cheese

Between my dad's love for upstate New York's sharp cheddars and the annual gift-pack of farmhouse cheeses my brother sends from California, cheese figures pretty heavily in my holiday season. This year Bronwen and Francis Percival's new book, Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese, makes that not just cause for pleasure, but reflection as well.

Bronwen Percival is the cheese buyer at Neal's Yard Dairy, London's premier outlet for artisanal cheeses. Her husband, Francis Percival, is a food and wine writer. Together they explore the history of the Anglo-American and French cheese trade. The story goes from farmhouses to factories and back again, with scientific developments and societal shifts creating curves along the way.

The 19th century saw the rise of a cheddar war, of sorts. In New York and New England, farmers banded

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