“Cheese is milk that gets around.”

 The Whole Fromage, pg 49.

I do love cheese, but not as much, I think, as a young woman of my acquaintance who is the daughter of a friend of mine.  The first time I really got to know her was at a showing of a film she had made while studying in Prague, and she showed it in conjunction with a cheese tasting reception afterwards, celebrating her two passions – film-making and cheese.  She had a major role in a cheese appreciation club at her college – an extracurricular activity I never would have dreamed of in my own college days!!

She has since gone on to making films all around the world, with an organization called “What Took You So Long?”, and one of her projects was Respect the Camel.

I’m a lover of zoos, despite all the bad rap they get for keeping animals in artificial environments.  But, the camels in zoos have always given me the willies!  They have the most ornery expressions, and I understand that they spit, although I have never actually witnessed a spitting camel.

In our book, The Whole Fromage. Kathe Lison writes about Salers cows – a particular breed of cattle that produces prodigious quantities of milk, but is persnickety about how it is milked.  As I read this section of the book, I thought about how challenging is must be to milk a camel.

And, thinking of that, I thought of my own daughter, who had an internship in college milking pigs who had a gene inserted into their cellular DNA to produce insulin (I think), and her stories of the challenges of milking pigs.

Milk is a wondrous natural product, which not all of us adults can enjoy consuming, due to loss of the enzyme lactase in our digestive tracts, and it’s amazing to me that we manage to manipulate this natural product in such a multitude of ways.  And, isn’t it amazing, that we humans have convinced so many other species, however reluctant they may be, to share their milk product with us?

This post was inspired by The Whole Fromage by Kathe Lison, who traveled to France in search of its artisanal cheeses. Join From Left to Write on August 22 as we discuss The Whole Fromage.  As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.