Toppled Parmesan
This is Parmigiano-Reggiano as it should look:
Parmigiano-Reggiano after the recent Emilia earthquake:
I received some reassuring news that the caseficio we toured in Parma was spared in the earthquake:
Luckily here in Parma we had no damage. Though we felt the quake in all its power, we were lucky enough to be spared lives lost and damages. It is true that in the area of Modena and Mantova damages were huge. We’re still trying to identify a precise amount, probably out of the 300,000 wheels of cheese involved, about 100,000 could be lost, but this is still a partial evaluation. Many people have offered to buy the damaged cheese. We’re lucky enough to live in a region where solidarity is still an important value, and, of course, this is a great comfort.
I’d definitely be interested in one of those wheels of “damaged” cheese… hopefully at a good discount! :)
It’s likely that those that can be salvaged will end up with the processed food industries (think: all those Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas). But as others have pointed out there’s a marketing opportunity here. Who wouldn’t pay a little extra for some earthquake parmesan?