Cheese-Making Teenagers, Reindeer Sashimi, and Other Food News

In honor of the upcoming Seattle Cheese Festival, an event at which I plan to gorge myself, our local dailies are running cheesemaker profiles:

Vashon Island Teen Takes Love of Cheese to Whole New Level by Karen Gaudette (Seattle Times): Kelsey Kozak's parents allow her to raise a cow and make her own cheese, though they draw a line at letting her dig her own cheese cave. Parents.

Creamery's Success Came out of the Blue by Rebekah Denn (Seattle P-I): In just three years -- three -- Mount Townsend Creamery has learned to produce some of the country's best cheeses.

Where Home Cooking Gets the Cold Shoulder by Andreas Viestad (Washington Post): Perhaps Dr. Atkins didn't go far enough -- some Siberians thrive on a diet of frozen, raw reindeer.

The Last Bite by Bee Wilson (New Yorker): Depression alert. London Telegraph columnist reviews four new books foretelling a potential apocalypse as the world depletes and/or mismanages its food resources.

Change We Can Stomach by Dan Barber (NY Times): One solution to our coming food worries, argues a prominent New York chef, is to rebuild our network of small family farms, which are more productive than farms practicing monoculture, anyway.

School Lunch Abroad: Another Way to Eat by Deborah Madison (Culinate): If I told you that French school children eat salad and stinky cheese for lunch and loved it, would you believe me? Oh, yeah. You would. It's the French.

Beyond Pie Filling by Matthew Amster-Burton (Gourmet.com): Local food writer gets unlimited access to backyard sour-cherry trees, making local food critic incredibly envious.

And last, because it's still #$^#ing cold today and because the poll results from West Virginia have made me depressed, I leave you with this gratuitous bit of meanness (thanks, Serious Eats).