New Online Food Site Offers Unique Holiday Gifts from America's Best Regional Artisans.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Looking for something different, yet affordable, for gift-giving this holiday season? Tired of shopping malls and department stores? Are you an online shopper who wants to give something more interesting than a ho-hum treat tower? If so, RegionalBest.com (http://www.regionalbest.com/), a new e-commerce food site,...

Wyke Farms Cheddar Is Now Available in US Midwest Grocery Stores.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE CLOSE-UP-14 September 2008-Wyke Farms Cheddar Is Now Available in US Midwest Grocery Stores(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com Wyke Farms, a UK independent cheese producer and milk processor, announced the family's farmhouse cheddar and butter will be available in a variety of retail grocery stores...

Light transmission has potential to measure whey fat losses during cheesemaking.
Of course, optimizing cheese yields is economically important to cheese producers. This is achieved by minimizing milk component losses, such as fat, and precisely controlling the moisture of the curd during production. Scientists in Ireland and elsewhere wanted to determine if whey fat content could be measured...

ENTREE NOTES.
Byline: The Register-Guard Winery raises money for cat-assistance group The Stray Cat Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping low-income people afford low-cost spaying and neutering for their pets, will be the beneficiary of a fundraiser at Sweet Cheeks Winery on Oct. 4. ...

P is for poetry: kids write rhyming ABC state books.
Explore the states through poetry? These young authors did it with glee! Kids in California, Oregon, and Washington recently teamed up to write books about their states. The books describe the states' famous features from A to Z, including California's redwood trees and Washington's Space Needle. ...

White tablecloths, green fields: at farm dinners all over the West, guests savor food right at the source.
THE DINNER GUESTS came from as far as Florida, but the squash blossoms sprang from the soil beneath our feet. It is twilight in the Santa Cruz foothills. The North Star sparkles in a dark plum sky. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Standing on a footpath at Everett...

Goat cheese, please!
Byline: Jennifer Snelling For The Register-Guard If you've lived in Eugene any length of time, you've probably driven by Fern's Edge Dairy a hundred times. On your way to the snow, to the lakes, to the mountains. Yet you probably didn't know the little goat dairy was...

An update on Rennet.
RENNET IS DEFINED AS THE INNER LINING OF THE fourth stomach of calves and other young ruminants or as an extract made from the stomach lining of a ruminant, used in cheesemaking to curdle milk. Rennet also broadly refers to any enzyme used for the coagulation of milk in...

Petaluma: eat (really well), shop, and soak up summer in a Sonoma County town where old meets new.
THE PERFECT SMALL TOWN, Petaluma has managed to retain its old-school rural charm--squint down Petaluma Boulevard, and it could be 1900 while adding the best from the modern world: stylish boutiques, great restaurants, and a few flower-child echoes from the '60s. The town turns 150 this year, and it...

Dear EarthTalk: my body doesn't tolerate cheese well. Are there dairy-free cheeses that will be easier on my constitution and better for the environment, too?
With some 30 to 50 million Americans suffering from various degrees of lactose intolerance, and an estimated three million of us now eating animal-free (vegan) diets for humane, environmental and/or health reasons, the production of alternatives to dairy products has started to become big business. But while...