Annual cheese roll is down hill all the way

Good news for cheese lovers or those people who believe that cheese can be used for other means than on crackers. Would-be participants are preparing for the annual Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling Festival challenge or competition, scheduled to take place this year on Monday, May 27, 2013.

Chasing cheese down a hill - be still my beating heart! There is something about this challenge that is Monty Python-esque, at least in my eyes.

In the way of background information, the event dates back to the 1800's and features an 8lb - give or take a couple of ounces - Double Gloucester cheese, which is rolled down what is described as a very steep hill.

According to the BBC who keep track of these type of stories, cheese rolling could have been initiated by the Phoenicians who lived in the south-western parts of Britain before the Roman invasion of 54BC, by the ancient Britons, or by the Romans themselves. Furthermore, the first evidence of cheese rolling was discovered in a message to the Gloucester Town Crier in 1826.

The procedure is simple in that participants or cheese rollers/roll-ees  set off to push the cheese down the hill. The first cheese rolls at noon and there are five downhill races, spaced 20 minutes apart. This begs (or at least makes one - me - wonder) as to the rationale behind the race. The winner(s) get to keep the cheese or what is left of it when it reaches the bottom. One wonders how much falls off along the way.

Just thinking...do participants use a stick to propel their cheese down hill or let gravity do the work?
As a person who hasn't tried this type of challenge (cheese is for eating IMHO - then again...) given that the cheese travels down a grassy surface, wouldn't it require some type of intervention i.e. hand/stick to keep it going?

So picture this: cheese slabs sliding and making their way down hill trailed by screaming humans. What if local mice and rat families who make their home on the hill wait on the side-lines to make their moves.

LOCAL RODENT PHILIP
I say, Percy. Do you see what I see?

LOCAL RODENT PERCY
Well bless my stars! Could it be?

LOCAL RODENT PHILIP
(sniffing the air)
The aroma is familiar

LOCAL RODENT PERCY
(smelling the air)
Smells like...

LOCAL RODENT PHILIP
...cheddar would you say?

LOCAL RODENT PERCY
(still sniffing the air)
It might be, although...it smells more like...

LOCAL RODENTS (PHILIP) & PERCY TOGETHER
...Gloucester !

PERCY
I do like a piece of Gloucestershire in the morning. How about you, Philip?

LOCAL RODENT PHILIP
I'm more a cheddar mouse myself but this is an opportunity too good to pass up. Should we?

LOCAL RODENT PERCY
I say we should! Ready?

LOCAL RODENT PHILIP
You take a front chunk and I'll take a back bite and we'll meet back for tea at my hole

LOCAL RODENT PERCY
I say, Philip. You are the best host. What type of tea will we be drinking, today?

LOCAL RODENT PHILIP
For Gloucestershire, only Earl Grey will do. Here they come! Free cheese on the way!

Right now, people reading this who are wondering just how this double Gloucester cheese is made might want to watch this:  http://www.smartsgloucestercheese.com/making.html

For those people who might want to try their hand in this - well - interesting pastime, here is a video of what to expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GdVnzDFyLg

Some people like to chase their cheese while others prefer to have it served on a plate with crackers. Different strokes for different folk.

Something still cheesy in England

Some of us, most likely most of us, think of cheese as a food to be eaten with crackers or perhaps a topping on hamburgers. "Normal" stuff. Then there are others who enjoy cheese on a roll, literally.

Approximately 100 people showed up at Coopers Hill, Gloustershire for an "unofficial" cheese race, even though it had officially been called off. The popular event attended by 15,000 people last year featuring people chasing a large chunk of cheese down a steep hill, was cancelled due to safety reasons. Thinking further, I suppose there could be a certain risk factor involved i.e. people watching from the sidelines getting injured by a runaway cheese. Or participants running into things on their way down like bushes or bikes or parked cars...

The cancellation hasn't been taken lying down or on the side and an official "Bring Back Cheese Rolling Group" has been initiated with more than 11,670 signatures. Some people really like their cheese.

Meanwhile, in another part of England (sounds like something out of a Monty Python skit), 5,000 people for whatever reason, attended the annual(!) woolsack race in Tetbury. The competition involves running up a steep hill carrying heavy sacks. Why do they do it? Probably for the same reason as people enjoy chasing cheese down a hill. Seems that this activity goes back to mediaeval times when men carried 60lb woolsacks and females carried 40lb woolsacks.

Finally, if this isn't enough to make you wonder, last but not least is the annual shin-kicking competition to take place this month. Really.

OF CHEESE ROLLERS AND COWS...MILKING A STORY FOR ALL ITS WORTH

Shades of Monty Python!

At one time cheese was a healthy food that people ate, period. Lately though, it appears that cheese has and is being used as something worthy of watching and now (for a while it appears) comes the sport of cheese-chasing. At least it is in England where both cheese "activities" take place, but let's focus our attention this time on the latter.

Every year at the end of May or Spring bank holiday as it is known in England, a bunch of people from all over Europe for some reason known only to them - perhaps they're cheese-a-holics - roll chunks of cheese down a hill.

Yup...cheese.

The cheese used is a 7-8 lb. double Gloucestser, which moves, slides and/or bounces down a steep hill 200m long and has a 1:1 gradient in places. There is no information provided whether participants bring along a cheese slicer and/or crackers but let's assume not. It's also a great and unique excuse for arriving late to work: a cheese traffic tie-up.

A group of volunteers from St. John Ambulance were standing by to treat boo-boo's most of which were reported to be cuts, bruises and sprains.

Dating back thousands of years the competition consists of a series of downhill races with the winner of each receiving a 7-8 pound circle of cheese, while runners-up get £10 and a £5 prize for third place. Seems like a very cheesy prize if you ask me.

The winner, Aaron Walden, 20, from Gloucester, won for the third time beating a man dressed in a diaper to the bottom of the hill. Nothing about him carrying a bottle of skim milk directly from cows as is the case in the next story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/6696717.stm


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Think about this the next time you drink your glass of skim milk.

A group of experts at a biotechnology company in New Zealand have discovered that some cows have a gene that allows them to give skim milk. And we "normals" thought that there was a de-fatting process involved! That's as much as we know.

Identified in 2001, the team has been able to breed calves that can produce the skimmed variety and those involved believe that it can have a significant impact on the dairy industry. Furthermore, the original low-fat cow who goes by the name "Marge", produces milk very low in saturated fats.

What's next? Cows that can give low-fat yogurt?

Read the entire story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6700129.stm


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