Received my seeds today! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you Kamil and everyone! I'm just about to go start mine! I even got my favorite color, how's that for cool! Maybe we could do a swap based on color next time...Hm, I might have to start one of those based on purple.... :0) Thanks a bunch guys/gals it was fun!

Love both of those! While I use them mostly for cooking, I always nibble some while grating. Both quite pungent, but not “stinky”, IMO. There are so many cheeses, but my tired mind can't come up with their names, and lists seem to give the ones you can get at a good supermarket, the ones no one's ever heard of which are useless without tasting, and nothing in the middle. Sorry, Rob, for letting you down. It's rather unfortunate that there are so many nutritious vegetables which I can't get past my nose without great force of will, and there are so many funky cheeses whose smells are a problem for the fridge but not for me, and in a land of plenty, cheese is not nutrutionally necessary. I can't remember what it was, but not so long ago I had a bit of a cheese leftover, well wrapped and in the fridge to stop it from maturing much further, and when I opened the fridge, I thought something had died in there! Aired out a little, the cheese was still good, and the fancy filters in the fridge took care of the stench. :) But I can't think of the name of the cheese at all...

So many good recipes here! If we make it again I'll try them. I didn't have a chance to check in before making it this morning. I started at 6:15 and at 8:15 after showering (oven turned off after baking at 350, not broiling, and burner for cider turned off) I was running to pour the cider in the 5 gal Igloo and get the pans in the cooler. But we made it - drove up to Springfield and found they'd pushed start to 11AM instead of 10. So it sat longer than expected but was still warm and the cider was so hot we had to add cold cider in. I did have a little problem with the sauce - I made a double batch (for 2 lbs of pasta) at a time, poured it in with about 1 lb diced ham (decided that was enough) and yes 1/2 package of peas. Then put the pan (which still had cheese sauce in it) back on burner to add more cheese sauce (I had almost 1C from last night) and more cheese, I didn't think I needed more roux. Burner was off but sauce burnt to bottom so I only poured a little over the 2nd pan before I realized, put 2nd lb of pasta in with just lots of shredded cheese, melted a stick of butter and some milk in the MW and poured over, mixed in, stuck in oven, mixed some more then topped with more cheese. Guess which one they went for first? But they said it was all good, they were going back for the ham & pea version even before the plain was gone. I think teenagers will eat anything (of course DD wouldn't touch it). I think we ate 3/4 of it (so 3 lbs of pasta) and there were 23 kids and 4 adults counting the bus driver (who said she didn't like peas but liked this and took the leftovers home). Next time I'm not going to get so involved making the sauce - I'll melt butter, milk and cheese together and if it's not thick enough I'll add roux but I'd definitely add more cheese, less milk and flour than CI calls for (I used less than 3 quarts b/c I wasted some in the burnt sauce, so 1/2 gal was probably enough for 4 lbs of pasta, but I used 3 sticks of butter, 2 in the roux and 1 in the last pan). The cayenne wasn't noticeable and I did heavily salt the water, and put about 1 tsp of salt in the first cheese sauce but none in the 2nd pan (butter/milk) and I don't think they missed it. I forgot to bring salt and pepper but I've got some plastic shakers I'll throw in the box with cups and flatware so we have it with us.

Please note: Humboldt is spelled with a "d" before the "t" - I think it must be a German name. I've been to the redwood parks in Humboldt County many times, and I think they are close to the northern extent (today) of the redwoods. There may be a few in extreme southern Oregon, but otherwise, they are native only to California. The cheese is also spelled Humboldt Fog Cheese. Normally, I would not make an issue of this, but the misspelling seems to be more common than the correct spelling, and I am not sure why this is.