the aesthetics of dairy

The look of dairy is sublime. The thing itself whether milk in a glass, a pitcher, or a vat; the shapes of cheese wheels, bricks, bouches, tommes; the inner glow of cantal; the same piece as it ages and grows in character, color, density; the forms, baskets, molds that hold curd and make upon it shapes that define style and texture; to look upon a range of farmstead cheeses stacked and piled in an edible naturescape; well-crafted salumis hanging from dowels, slowly weeps and whitens, patiently in wait for the final cut.

The Plowman Has a Hunch

This blog is dedicated to an endeavor called The Plowman's Hunch, a roaming caravan serving Onion Soup and Northern Californian Cheeses and Salumis. The Hunch seeks also to establish a trade route to share with visitors between country and town, the dairy and the market, broadly within a hundred mile radius of the city of San Francisco. Within the city, an annual schedule is to be established observing sites of festivals and attractions that are in need of a solid regional lunch and an opportunity to share in the brilliant bounty of fermented foods emerging from the Bay Area. This blog is where ideas are expressed, hunches are tossed, shaped, executed.

It is to say what The Plowman's Hunch IS -- a showcase of local fermented foods -- and what it isn't -- a sandwich stand. The food stands on its own and doesn't benefit from blurring into a sandwich. There are no samples. Patrons are rewarded with amuse-bouche to show appreciation. The intention is to entice, to sell, and then satisfy. If the patron is first satistfied, the rest is lost and value is not conveyed.