Being on the set of a shoot is always new, fun and exciting. The great thing about shooting “Spoiled To Perfection,” is that we’re in a new place each time, learning something new about fermentation and the food and beverage industry.
Before our most recent shoot, I had never been in an aging room for cheese. Being the full-blown cheese addict that I am, I imagined loving everything about being in a room full of cheese. I was so wrong. It’s cold, you have to wear a hairnet everywhere you go, and much to my disappointment, there are not platters full of cheese at every corner for my personal snacking pleasure! That must have been something I dreamt about.
The funny thing about shooting video is that to get about five to ten minutes of useable footage, it takes five or so hours of set up and shooting. So by the time we were done with hours of shooting in the aging room, my limbs were numb and my hairdo was totally ruined.
Luckily for me, I got to roam around the farm a lot on the first day. I visited with the sheep, and stepped in a lot of “mud.” I found some stray farm kittens that let me get just close enough to take their picture, but not pet them. I got to watch the process of how Bellwether farms makes their famous ricotta cheese and watched the warm milky water drain all over the floor. Our host, Garrett Martin, got his hands dirty and helped package fresh ricotta from the vat, which was a lot harder than it looked.
On the second day, we prepared some amazing dishes with Bellwether Farms ricotta at Relish Culinary Adventures in Healdsburg, CA. Relish is a great place to take cooking classes on just about anything you can think of, and they love having us for shoots. It’s a gorgeous kitchen with lots of room for Shoot Blue Productions film crew to spread out and get creative. The best part about the day was spending time with our sponsor, Bubbies Pickles owner, John Gray. John and I chatted a lot about why fermentation is so fascinating and why he chose pickles as his industry of choice. Check out our mini interview in the “Behind The Scenes” video of Episode 3.
We hope you have enjoyed all three episodes and we look forward to being on set again for Episode 4.
