Brady Street Artisan Food Festival

For the third year, Brady Street will be closed off this Sunday for the annual Brady Street Artisan Food Festival. This year, a Ferris wheel will be erected west of N. Humboldt Av., at the east side thoroughfare’s highest point. As always, there will be cheese for sale.

The cheese comes from the American Cheese Society Conference, held last weekend in Portland, Oregon. Cheese judges only need to use a small amount of the product for their evaluation, and 1,400 pounds of the rest was bought by the folks on Brady Street where it will be offered for sale in one-pound portions for the bargain price of $7 a pound.

I was there at St. Rita’s Church kitchen yesterday afternoon when the cheese arrived after its journey from Portland, and a brief stay in the Patrick Cudahy coolers. Dozens of varieties of cheese emerged from insulated boxes, while volunteers sliced and diced them. They will be offered for sale on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. Last year, the stuff sold out in hours.

The idea of the event is to reconnect urban folk with the source of their food. Wisconsin is well positioned in this area, since the state is increasingly being recognized as being in the forefront of sustainable agriculture and innovative artisan food products. For example, state cheesemakers took 69 awards at the cheese society conference, more than any other state.

I’ve spent years of my recent life moving from one apartment to another in the Brady Street neighborhood, usually just ahead of the remodeling contractors. I have seen Brady Street festivals evolve from hippie utopia dream-ins about returning to nature to today’s reality, where connecting with our food suppliers and our neighbors is increasingly a mainstream concern.

For more information, you can check out www.bradyst.com.

This article was originally published by Milwaukee World.