Wednesday Walk: Let's Get Regional
Tunisian Swiss cheese, Texas gas in Florida, and Wawa
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
As is typical every Wednesday, today I’m bring you a smattering of topics that I hope will make you a bit more curious about the world around you and give you something to think about later.
If you like what you’re reading, you can sign up to have this newsletter delivered to your inbox every Wednesday and Sunday for free:
“Swiss” Cheese
In America, when somebody mentions Swiss cheese, we often picture a white cheese with holes in it, maybe even with a cartoon mouse inside.
Of course, there are many different kinds of Swiss cheese, from Emmentaler to Gruyére. Today, we’re going to talk about the latter.
According to Le Gruyére AOP, the history of the cheese dates back to 1115 in the Gruyére region of Switzerland. Some of the characteristics that make authentic Gruyére cheese include:
70% of the cattle’s forage comes from the farm
No silage allowed
No additives
Milk is sourced close to the cheese dairy (max 12.4 miles)
Milk is used within 18h after milking
No pasteurisation, it is raw milk
No preservatives
No growth hormones
The cheese was given the Protected Designation of Origin (AOP) label in Switzerland in 2001 and in all of the E.U. in 2011, which guarantees that the cheese comes from the Gruyére region and is made according to custom.
I recently came across an interesting article by María Luisa Paúl for The Washington Post about how the U.S. attitude towards Gruyére differs from that of Europe, so much so that it ended up in court.
In 2015, the producers of Gruyére cheese applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for protection over the use of the name Gruyére in the United States. According to Paúl:
“The Patent and Trademark Office ultimately denied the groups’ application after the agency’s appeal board deemed the term generic — finding Gruyère amounted to ‘a category of cheese that may be made anywhere and evoke the Swiss and (occasionally) French origin.’”
The ruling was appealed through the courts several times, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia upholding lower court rulings that Gruyére was a generic term.
But this isn’t just a case of “American freedom” versus “European food snobbery,” or whatever weird culture war spin might be hoisted upon this case. As Paúl details, there were some real questions about Gruyére’s authenticity presented in court:
“…between 2010 and 2020, the majority of the Gruyère-labeled cheese that was imported to the United States came from the Netherlands and Germany instead of Switzerland and France, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. The country also received ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ of the cheese from Denmark, Tunisia, Egypt and Italy, the ruling states.
The judges also highlighted the American production of Gruyère, pointing out that supermarket Wegmans ‘sold more domestic gruyere-labeled cheese than Swiss gruyere-labeled cheese each year between 2016 and 2021 (except 2020).’”
This all may seem like a curiosity to some, but for me, it’s much deeper than that. Ever since my family started following Dr. Steven Gundry’s Plant Paradox program, we’ve been learning that not all milk is created equally.
Milk from places like Switzerland, France, and Italy almost all contain a protein known as A2 casein. At some point long ago, the breeds of cattle that live in more Northern areas like England and the U.S. began to produce A1 casein instead of A2. Many people have adverse effects from drinking milk or eating dairy products with A1 casein, but they often have no sensitivity to A2 casein dairy.
Since starting our diet almost a year and a half ago, we have been drinking locally sourced A2 milk, although finding local A2 cheese is more difficult. We were surprised when we visited Lancaster, PA last summer that many Amish dairies raise A2 certified cows and a lot of the dairy products available in Amish country are A2.
Since we don’t live near an Amish settlement though, imported Gruyére has become our staple cheese. We find that it melts well into pastas and quesadillas, it tastes good on sandwiches, and it’s a good snacking cheese to eat on its own too! We actually buy so much Gruyére that we purchase it at Costco by the pound.
Our Costco Gruyére cheese is labelled as being from Switzerland, but this story is a good reminder to not make assumptions about the food you’re buying, its origins, and its contents. The ingredients, sourcing, or production methods could change at any time, and that “Swiss” cheese you think you’re buying may actually be from Wisconsin, Denmark, or Tunisia. Caveat emptor!
Don’t Mess with Buc-ee’s
I’ve been giving some thought lately to the obsessive fan bases that come with local gas stations and convenience stores. Depending on where you are in the country, you may have a strange affinity for QuikTrip, Sheetz, or Buc-ee’s.
It seems that the closest we have to one of those chains in New England is Cumberland Farms. It made a post apocalyptic cameo in The Last of Us recently, although more New Englanders were talking about the show’s opening than the appearance of a Cumbie’s (including Maine’s own Stephen King).
I’ve been wanting to write something about local gas stations for a while. Suffice it to say, I don’t quite “get it” when it comes to celebrating these places. I understand that some of them sell their own unique foods, but at the end of the day, aren’t they mostly just the same Frito Lay and Coca Cola products? And how are they different from the Shell or Mobil down the street?
I’m not done exploring this topic, but it felt like this half idea was at least starting to congeal in my head enough to start talking about in a short form way. Think of this as more of a pencil sketch than a portrait.
I recently came across this PBS Food video by Kae Lani Palmisano about mid-Atlantic convenience store chain Wawa that really sparked some inspiration:
In the video, Palmisano lays out what she sees as the keys to Wawa’s success. In my opinion, her strongest argument comes down to rivalry. Oftentimes, locals like to pit their regional chain against stores from other parts of the country that don’t compete head to head, making them difficult to truly compare. In some ways, these shops become a proxy for local pride, similar to a sports team.
There’s another regional chain that inspires local pride: Texas-based Buc-ee’s. They were profiled on CBS Sunday Morning last year by Luke Burbank.
Buc-ee’s is known for its massive filling stations (sometimes hundreds of pumps) and large convenience stores that serve fresh barbecue and includes meet and greets with a costumed beaver. There’s nothing more Lone Star than Buc-ee’s.
But here’s the funny thing: the first time I visited a Buc-ee’s was not in Texas, it was in Daytona Beach, Florida on a drive to Orlando. I honestly didn’t get all the hype and found the whole experience to be a bit stressful.
I was driving my RV, which was technically allowed, but was larger than most of the other vehicles. Buc-ee’s prohibits tractor trailers, making sure it is not seen as a “truck stop.” I found the parking lot to be chaotic, and even with plenty of fuel pumps, they all seemed to be in use (or people would park at the pump and go shop inside for a long time).
The Buc-ee’s in Florida has also become a favorite stop for Governor Ron DeSantis. He cut the ribbon at the grand opening last year, made a speech there in November about gas prices, and apparently did a book signing there earlier this month. Besides the location in Daytona Beach, there’s also one in Saint Augustine and a proposed location in Ocala. I guess you can’t get more Florida than a Texas gas station.
Even if Buc-ee’s is the governor’s favorite fueling spot, there’s another regional gas station that is much bigger in the Sunshine State. Wawa operates 250 stores and counting in Florida, the only state outside of the mid-Atlantic where you can find it.
What does it mean when regional stores outgrow their region? Is there still the same sense of local pride for a Wawa in Orlando that there is in Philadelphia, or is it just another store at that point?
Also, why do so many regional chains decide to converge on Florida? Buc-ee’s and Wawa, but also Chicago food staples like Portillo’s and Giordano’s have staked a claim down there.
As so much of America becomes homogenized and regional dialects, local chain stores, and local housing styles all become similar, it becomes harder and harder to know where you are and why you’re there.
Perhaps more on this sometime soon…
#NoNewClothes- Week 22
We are now in Week 22 of this strange project of not buying any new clothes this year, inspired by a conversation with Amory Sivertson, who undertook a similar journey last year.
This week, I wanted to share a simple observation about the joy of clothes shopping in your own closet.
I don’t know about you, but even though my closet is filled with dozens of shirts, I tend to only wear the same maybe 15 or 20 in a rotation, ignoring just as many perfectly good shirts.
The sweatshirt that I’m wearing in this photo dates to somewhere around 2002 or 2003. I believe my mom bought it for me, perhaps at some point when we were visiting Emerson College before I enrolled there, or maybe it was after I had already starting attending.
This sweatshirt has certainly made the rounds over the last 20 years. I used to wear it as a college student. At some point, my wife began to use it as a sleep shirt. I believe my mother in law even wore it for a time, before it made its way back to our house.
Lately, it has been buried at the bottom of our closet and hasn’t seen much use. I’m not even sure why I hold on to it. The graphic design on it is just okay- nothing about it particularly evokes Emerson College. It’s also a size large, which I’ve never ever been in my life, but I went through a phase in my late teens and early twenties where I thought wearing a size large made me “more adult.”
I saw this sweatshirt the other day and decided to try it on. It was surprisingly comfortable and didn’t look bad on me. I suppose I held on to it just long enough for it to be trendy again, or at least to not look completely dated.
I know at one time I would just keep buying clothes, thinking I always needed something new to look and feel fresh. It turns out that just going a little deeper into my usual rotation gives me plenty of choices. I could probably wear a new shirt everyday for 6-8 weeks and not repeat looks if I didn’t want to, just from my closet. But I’m always stuck in the routine of wearing favorites every week or two.
I think the point is that we often have enough, or even more than enough, but somehow convince ourselves that we need more. With a little reframing, we can recognize that what we have is perfectly sufficient and can even spark fresh joy when rediscovering a long lost piece like this old sweatshirt.
Thank you for reading! I always love hearing your thoughts, so please drop a line in the comments.
I publish new issues every Wednesday and Sunday. Sign up to always receive the latest issue and support my work:
Other Wednesday Walks
Please consider sharing this with a friend that you think might enjoy it or you can post it on social media.
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
Stay Safe!
Heath
Another regional chain with a cult-like following is Casey’s from Iowa. I’m from Texas and also find Bucee’s stressful to visit. There are just too many cars and trucks and people!
I think Florida becomes a destination for so many regional brands because the vast majority of Florida’s population is from somewhere else.
A decade ago I would have voted for Sheetz, but then I discovered Maryland and Delaware's own Royal Farms, which to me is a chicken restaurant (a la my hometown favorite Bojangles), with a nice convenience store and cheap gas, but only the gas is the most dependable, based on the neighborhood. As always, a lot of interesting quality of life nuggets!