Cheesy holiday goodness

Thought I'd make a quick post for this week before Thanksgiving, as I'm sure I'll have a Monday post for all of that craziness.
This past week I've been super busy with...everything. I've finally gotten a nice, perfect schedule going for my weeks that fit in everything from school to swimming. Earlier this week I remember thinking "ah, can't wait for the break"...

....but then I remembered that I have a ton of homework and papers to write and still have to keep up exercising...so I'll still be doing everything the same...just in a different location. -_-
The best part of this week though, was the past weekend when Husky visited. We visited our favorite cheese shop in town for a Groupon I had and found out they were having the last cheese tasting (ever) for a 40yr old cheddar. Needless to say we got tickets right then.

From what we were taught, cheese making is kind of like an all or nothing investment. You can try to age it for more years but you never know if it will actually make it to the next year. 15 is about the highest most go, and it was certainly the highest I'd ever had. Supposedly the story behind this cheese is a very old gentleman from Greenbay called the shop to ask if they were interested in buying his 28, 34, and 40yr old cheddars. They thought it was a prank call at first. Those ages are not only unheard of but a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Turns out he was a very old cheese maker who retired several years back. About a year ago he got around to cleaning out the cellar, not sure if he was moving or what the details are on why now, but in the very back he finds these old crates marked with the dates indicating how old they are now. At first he didn't think anything of it and so he sold the stuff to the fishermen in the local town for $5 dollars a pound....  Let me repeat that. 40 year old cheddar, that's actually $147 a pound, was being used at catfish bait. He had started out with 50 some pounds. By the time he called the shop he had 20ish pounds. My heart wept. Then I thought about going fishing.

The shop of course bought all of it and sent out cores to be tested and verified. Some of it was bad, from being so old, so they had to cut that off. Eventually they were left with 17lbs I think. I don't remember the exact numbers. Maybe it was 14lbs. Regardless, rather than sell it they decided to use the 28yr and 40yr in various cheese tastings so that everyone could have a chance to try it rather than a select rich few that would be the only ones able to afford buying it as is. The 34yr they are going to risk trying to age it for one more year and then do the same thing as the other two. 

What was most fun about all of this is that there will probably never ever be another 40yr old cheddar again. At least not in my lifetime...and Husky and I managed to get in on the very last tasting they had for what they had left. The whole tasting started with a 1yr, 5yr, and 12yr. Then we had the 28yr and the 40yr. The first three were paired with a local beer and the 28yr was paired with a port and the 40yr was paired with a 17yr old bourbon. It was really, really cool to be a part of something like that.

And of course, the 40yr cheese was fucking amazing.

I got a nice break on Monday when the city had their 99th anual Xmas tree lighting. It was super awesome. And today the oldies radio station switched over to Xmas tunes for the season, only this time I was able to play them till my little heart was content without anyone telling me it's too early. XD I love Christmas. I might just explode from happiness.