CACHE COUNTY – It’s that cheesy time again.
“It’s time for the second annual Cache Valley Cheese and Dairy Festival,” according to Julie Hollist Terrill, the director of the Cache Valley Visitor’s Bureau.
That event will be held Friday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct.1 at the Cache Valley Event Center.
“It’s free,” Hollist Terrill boasts, “and bigger and better than ever.”
Last year, about 3,000 people attended the event that celebrates Cache Valley’s dairy heritage and dairy products that are consumed across the nation and even around the world, explains Ron Bjorkman, the event’s organizer.
This year’s festival is indeed bigger, Bjorkman confirms, with more events spread over two days instead of just one.
New activities on the festival’s schedule include a Master of Mac and Cheese cooking contest; story times for the kids on the hour and half-hour; more interactive demonstrations; and cracking an 80-pound wheel of parmigiano-reggiano cheese valued at $1,600.
“We are thrilled to celebrate the amazing dairy products made here in Cache Valley,” Bjorkman says. “Behind it all, are our dedicated and hard-working dairymen and women, many of whom come from generations who have also worked so hard in this industry.
“They are the ones that we truly honor with this festival,” Bjorkman added, explaining that local dairy owners will attend a by-invitation-only dinner at the event center at 7 p.m. on Friday evening.
The festival will officially open at noon Friday when visitors can enjoy vendor booths and displays; food trucks snacks; live music; story-telling for children; and a charcuterie demonstration. Those events will continue until 6 p.m.
On Saturday, other free activities will open to the public from 10 a.m. to early evening.
Those include butter churning demonstrations; cheese tasting; the basics of making a charcuterie board; and milking Cookie, the robotic cow.
Visitors will also be able to test their knowledge of frontier-era tools and equipment; learn how cheese is made; and explore their food’s journey from nature to their dinner table.
Visitors will also get a chance to try to blow an alpenhorm, a giant wooden horn used by German and Swiss herdsmen to communicate.
Food trucks and live music will also be available throughout the day.
Bjorkman says that the winners of the 2nd annual Best Cheesecake in the County and the new Master of Mac and Cheese Contest will be announced Saturday, which will qualify those cooks to receive hundreds of dollars in cash and prizes.
“This year,” he explains, “the cheesecake contest has categories for professionals, amateurs and young cooks ages 18 and younger.
“The professionals will each make two cheesecakes and one will be entered in a silent auction to be held during the Dutch Oven dinner that will climax the festival on Saturday evening.”
Ticket-holders for that event will dine while enjoying live music starting at 6 p.m.
The menu for that dinner will include Gossner cheese and cracker appetizers; slow-cooked Dutch Oven roast beef; Dutch Oven chicken; Brent’s famous cheesy potatoes; steamed vegetable; rolls and butter; and, Dutch Oven peach cobbler with locally-made vanilla ice cream.
Tickets for the Dutch Oven dinner must be purchased in advance online at https://www.cachecheesefest.com
The Cache Valley Cheese and Dairy Festival is a cooperative effort by dairy farmers, dairy produce manufacturers, the Utah State University Extension Service, the Dairy Farmers of America, Cache County and the Cache Valley Visitors Bureau.
A full schedule of the festival’s events and information about contest rules can be found at https://www.cachecheesefest.com
The Cache Valley Event Center is located at 450 South, 500 West in Logan.