Just Pictures: Say Cheese!

When my friends and I asked our cheese factory tour guide to take a picture of all of us in our tour-required sanitary outfits (it looked pretty ridiculous), she said, "Say cheese!" and took the picture.  For once, it was an appropriate place for all of us to shout out "cheese!!".

Thanks to LivingSocial, my cheese-lovin' (alright heck, FOOD-lovin') friends took a VIP cheese tour at the Marin French Cheese Factory in Petaluma. 

The cheese factory is known for their World Champion (this was mentioned a couple of times) Triple Creme Brie.  After a bite of that brie on fresh French baguette, I can taste why it was the champion.  Divine.

We were all dressed to the nines in cheese factory standards, which meant a whole-body mesh gown, footies, hairnet, and nose/mouth guards to keep us from contaminating the cheese as we walk through the factory.  We went downstairs to the area where they made the cheese, looked around at empty rooms (cheese-making only ocurred Mondays thru Wednesdays), saw different cheese molds for 1 pounder, 8 ouncers, or petit cheeses, and finally, the most exciting part, looking at all of the cheese are that currently aging.
 

(The cheese is deliciously creating mold... the picture is not fuzzy!)

It smelled like sour milk all over the place, but looking at the cheeses in different stages of their moldy life was an overall fun and great experience.  Of course, after the walking tour, we were greeted outside by the picnic area to taste 7 different kinds of cheese with unlimited red and white wine.

The cheese factory also gave us a nice parting gift of cheese board, knife, a cheese map around the area, and three cheeses to take home: Morning Cheese, Bleu Cheese, and their champion Triple Creme Brie.  I am looking forward to cheese-ing myself out for the next couple of months!

Marin French Cheese Company // Petaluma, CA