One of the events my husband and I always look forward to in the spring here in the Rogue Valley is the Oregon Cheese Festival.

Courtesy of Oregon Cheese Guild

Held annually since 2005 (except for a few COVID years), the event celebrates primarily Oregon-made artisan cheeses … and a whole lot more. We first started attending right after we moved to the area in 2008, when it was sponsored by and held on the grounds of Rogue Creamery right in our hometown of Central Point. Rogue Creamery has won international acclaim for its blue cheeses, in particular, (its Rogue River Blue was named World Champion at the 2019/20 World Cheese Awards) and has championed the development of the Oregon Cheese Guild, a “collaborative community of artisan makers.”

As the years passed the festival grew, attracting more visitors and vendors alike. It outgrew its original space, and this year it moved to the large arena at the Exposition Center (fairgrounds) nearby. This proved to be a great move, as it allowed for much more elbow room. Another innovation was to hold the event over two days, with Saturday for the 21-and-older crowd and Sunday open to all ages. It was really nice to be able to circulate among the booths without having to negotiate around bulky strollers and roaming youngsters. I love kids, but I can get cranky when my toes get run over!

This year Harry and I volunteered to work the event on Sunday, which provided us with free admission on Saturday, including the beverage fee which allowed us tastes from the plethora of adult beverage vendors on site. Once we checked in and got our glass and wristband, we roamed throughout the arena, which teemed with other tasters eager to sample all the goodies. My initial impression was there were far more beverage representatives and specialty food options than there were actual cheese makers, and a later scan of the vendor list proved me right. A total of 16 cheesemakers (a few from Washington, Utah and California as well as the Oregon contingent) shared samples of their varied offerings: cow, sheep and goat cheeses; aged, fresh, blue, cheddar . . . and all delicious! One of the requirements the Guild has is that vendors must provide free samples at the event; they can’t just sell cheese, but they do sell a lot here, and many sold out before the two days were through.

If you wanted to mix things up a bit, you had 49 different specialty food vendors to choose from to complement the cheese. I could imagine creating an amazing table of noshes for a party as I circled booths offering all kinds of sauces, condiments and dips; pickled vegetables; honeys, infused oils, vinegars and finishing salts; roasted nuts; and crackers and biscuits. We sampled a delicious mushroom and lobster chowder from the Mushrooms All Year booth and on the spot decided to buy some of their dried mushrooms and try their recipe at home.  If you got really hungry, there were a few food trucks parked just outside the big roll-up doors at one end of the pavilion, and one of the cheese vendors, Don Froylan’s Creamery, was selling made-to-order quesadillas using their authentic Mexican queso fresco. I appreciated the fact that my sweet tooth could be satisfied with ice cream from Travelers Ice Cream or sweets from Branson’s Chocolates and Black Market Toffee.

One was never at risk of becoming dehydrated with all that food, either, as there were purveyors of teas, kombucha and sodas. If you wanted something with a kick, 35 different vendors offered beer, wine (including mead!), cider, cocktails and spirits. Samples were offered, but you could buy a glass, bottle or can if you wished, and at Don Froylan they could mix up a margarita for you, too!

We went home with a bag full of purchased goodies and returned the next day to put in our shift. We got a peek behind the scenes a bit and were impressed with the organization and planning it takes to run such a big, popular event. I certainly got my steps in on Sunday, and came away determined to take part again next year.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor