The dairy nightmare is finally over, as cheese vendors at the city's Greenmarkets are finally being allowed to cut their cheese to order at the markets, which they had been temporarily barred from doing.
The drama started last month, when the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets started enforcing a 40-year-old regulation stating that, in order to be able to cut pieces of cheese to order, cheese vendors must have a permanent building with three-compartment sink—a tough thing to transport to markets. Vendors were forced to spend hours pre-slicing and wrapping giant wheels of cheese before coming to market, often over or under-anticipating how much customers would buy. "It eliminates the personal touch, if you will, of the farmers' market," one farmer said last month. Others complained that pre-wrapping the artisanal cheeses can ruin their taste.
In response to the brouhaha, "We have talked to farmers and are responding to their needs," said an Agriculture Department spokesperson. Vendors will still be required to wear gloves, have a hand-washing facility and keep their knives clean. A Greenmarket spokesperson we talked to this morning called the news "thrilling," and farmers was psyched, telling the Daily News "The real winners here are the consumers. Now they'll get to have the full, old-fashioned feeling of having their food prepared in front of their eyes."
