M.E.E.T. me for CHEESE and CHOCOLATE

“A surprising book…she has a roving eye for detail…There is no corner that escapes Peggy Donovan in Spain in Your Pocket…” —Majorca Daily Bulletin

“Peggy Donovan knows us as well as we know ourselves…” —Antonio Oyarzabal, Spanish Ambassador to the United States

Witty and irreverent, informative and provocative, Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge is the highly readable story of Gordon Edgar’s unlikely career as a cheesemonger at San Francisco’s worker-owned Rainbow Grocery Cooperative. A former punk-rock political activist, Edgar bluffed his way into his cheese job knowing almost nothing, but quickly discovered a whole world of amazing artisan cheeses. There he developed a deep understanding and respect for the styles, producers, animals, and techniques that go into making great cheese.

With a refreshingly unpretentious sensibility, Edgar intertwines his own life story with his ongoing love affair with cheese, and offers readers an unflinching, highly entertaining on-theground look at America’s growing cheese movement. From problem customers to animal rights, business ethics to taste epiphanies, this book offers something for everyone, including cheese profiles and recommendations for selecting the very best—not just the most expensive—cheeses from the United States and around the world and a look at the struggles dairy farmers face in their attempts to stay on and make their living from the land.

Edgar—a smart, progressive cheese man with an activist’s edge—enlightens and delights with his view of the world from behind the cheese counter and his appreciation for the skill and tradition that go into a good wedge of Morbier.

Cheesemonger is the first book of its kind—a cheese memoir with attitude and information that will appeal to everyone from serious foodies to urban food activists.

Reading this book is designed to give both a humorous and factual insight into the land down under thus enlightening the reader to this very different part of the world.

This is not just another book extolling the virtues of Australia. Rather it is a series of stories written by an Australian. The stories give a concise view of life in Australia and include information on the geography, climate, animals, people, major points of interest and culture.

Australia is a country comprising a whole continent and as such it was essentially cut off from the rest of the world until not much more than 200 years ago. That enabled the oldest living culture, the Australian Aboriginals, to survive and thrive and, since colonisation by Britain in 1788, we now see a nation that has the descendants of that ancient Aboriginal culture living alongside people from all over the world. Australia is now both an ancient and a modern society with a living standard amongst the highest in the world - and our "fair go" culture plays a very large role in that achievement. Fiercely independent and democratic, Australia and Australians are indeed unique.