A Cheesy Ode to my Mother

When I was about three and my mother had some shopping to do at the local cheese shop and brought me along for some mother/daughter outing. Hand in hand we entered the store and the scent of cheese came over me like a salty sweet breeze. As we walked to the counter, my eyes took in boxes of stone ground crackers and Melba toasts stacked on wood shelves, wine bottles laying on their sides in wine racks stretching almost to the ceiling and a cooler filled with various cheese spreads in every color.

While my mother chatted with some of the other customers, the cheese monger looked over his wood counter at me and smiled. Being the precocious child I was, I of course smiled back. He picked up the slicer from the counter, shaved off a sample of pale cheese with large holes and handed it to me on a cracker. My mother looked over and nodded, saying "Go on. Try it." so I did. The flavor filled my mouth and I was hooked. I wanted more and the cheese monger began handing me bits of cheese to taste while my mother finished her shopping and,sadly, we left. When we got outside the shop, my mother opened her brown shopping bag and pulled out a wedge of Swiss and handed it to me. "This is just for you." she said. From that moment on our trips to the cheese shop became a Saturday ritual.

Now that I am older I appreciate what my mother was doing for me on those weekly trips. She didn't just take me to some shop, but allowed me to explore the counrty through cheese. I tasted Wisconsin in the buttery baby Swiss, Oregon in the Gouda, California had Camembert, and then back home to Ohio through the chevre. So many states producing such different tastes and I never had to leave my own neighborhood to try them.

As a parent, I have tried to do the same for my girls as my mother did for me. Sadly, our local cheese shop closed, yet I have managed to discover new places for cheesy adventures. When I see the look on my daughters' faces as they take the first bite of a new cheese, I understand the joy my mother must have felt watching me and silently thank her for the journey. (RK)