Sunrise, and a cheese discovery

It's fully 10 degrees Celsius warmer this morning than it was yesterday morning at the same time. That's a difference of nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The cold snap lasted only a few days, and now we're getting back to more normal temperatures. Here's what yesterday's sunrise looked like.

Right after the sun came up behind the trees on our neighbors' property, the sky clouded over and it started raining lightly. It was just warm enough for the precipitation to be rain instead of snow, but for at least a few minutes it was freezing rain. It kept getting warmer toward noontime, so it ended up wet, not icy, outside.

Meanwhile, I discovered a new cheese this past week. I found it at SuperU, in a refrigerated cabinet where the store usually displays goat cheeses more than any other variety — local ones. I admit that when I bought this cheese, I assumed it was made from goat's milk, but when I examined the label at home I learned that it's a cow's milk cheese. It was the coating of wood ash that tricked me, because local the goat cheeses are often ash-covered.

The cheese is called an Olivet cendré — cendres means ashes in French. Olivet is an old town that is nowadays a south suburb of the city of Orléans, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Saint-Aignan. The cheese is named for Olivet because it used to be made there, but I think the town's cheese business died out as the area developed. Olivet cheese, which resembles Camembert except for the ash coating, is apparently made in Normandy and also here in the Cher river valley, over near Selles-sur-Cher, in the town called La Vernelle. Or at least it has been aged or affiné there, as best I can tell by reading the label.

Why are cheeses covered with wood ash? It is partly to give them a smoky flavor, I think, but it used to also be a way to keep the individual cheeses from sticking together when they were being ripened on trays or shelves in cellars, one touching another. Another advantage of covering the cheeses with wood ash, which in Olivet was traditionally the ash left behind when grape-vine trimmings were burned, was that the ash kept insects away as the cheeses aged. Anyway, the cheese is delicious, and I'll buy it again if I see it again. Or maybe I'll drive over to La Vernelle and stop in at the Fromagerie P. Jacquin — I've driven by it many times but never gone in. The web site says Jaquin does make an Olivet Cendré, as well as Olivet cheeses aged in hay or coated with black pepper. I drive through La Vernelle on the way to the big Valençay wine co-op, where I like to go for wine once in a while.