Blackbird restaurant out in Chicago has a great cheese program led by Mr. David Barriball. On this week's episode, host Greg Blais speaks with David about cheese in the midwest, developing a restaurant cheese program and his new signature cheese - Little Blackbird - a gin washed cheese created with The Farm at Doe Run just for the restaurant.

The landscape of family farming in Wisconsin has changed drastically over the last several decades. In this episode of Cutting the Curd, Red Barn Family Farms co-founders Terry and Paula Homan share their insight into how family farming has changed, and their efforts to preserve a disappearing way of life.

This week on Cutting the Curd, host Diane Stemple is joined in the studio by cheesemonger and author Elena Santogade. Elena talks about her experience being one of the contributing authors of "The Oxford Companion to Cheese," which is perhaps one of the most comprehensive books ever written about cheese. The book includes a great variety of cheese-related topics such as animal species, biographies, cheese families, process and technique, chemistry, equipment and tools, pairings and cuisines, and many more.

Sue Sturman and Gannon Long of the Massachusetts Cheese Guild join host Greg Blais to continue the discussion from last year's episode #251. The rise of artisan cheese in the U.S. has created a need for knowledge sharing, marketing support and networking opportunities, particularly amongst small producers. Cheese guilds organized at the state level help fill these needs.

Our annual holiday special - Cheese Stories - returns! Thalassa Skinner (Culture Magazine) and Matt Rubiner (Rubiner's Cheesemongers) join host Greg Blais to recap the holidays, make cheese predictions for 2017 and tell their favorite cheese stories from behind the counter.

On the season premiere of Cutting the Curd, host Diane Stemple is joined by Lou Di Palo of Di Palo’s Fine Foods in Little Italy. Lou Di Palo travels to Italy several times a year to select the country’s best hand-crafted specialties and to guarantee their excellence every season, year after year. He is also the co-author of Di Palo's Guide to the Essential Foods of Italy: 100 Years of Wisdom and Stories from Behind the Counter.

Cheese is meant for sharing - whether through a well-composed cheese board or a gathering over fondue. In the same spirit, authors Andrew Tarlow - owner of Brooklyn’s Diner, Marlow & Sons, Marlow & Daughters, and Reynard - and Anna Dunn join host Diane Stemple to discuss debut cookbook: Dinner at the Long Table. The book details seasonal dishes meant to be shared amongst friends.

Dr. Paul Kindstedt – University of Vermont professor and author of the seminal book on cheese history, Cheese and Culture – joins host Greg Blais. They discuss how his program of literature-based scholarship on cheese history has converged with his laboratory-based research on cheese crystallography through the topic of climate change.

The last time Sue Miller and Rachel Fritz Schaal were on the show, they hinted at a very special collaboration. Tune in to learn more about their project, as they and Peter Dixon join in the studio with host Greg Blais.

Looking for a career path in cheese that extends beyond the retail cheese counter? In this episode of Cutting the Curd, Greg Blais sits down with Will Imre, former cheesemonger and current Sales and Development Manager for Pondini – a distributor of domestic and imported organic cheeses and other specialty foods – to talk about creating a career after mongering.