Real cheese is not always orange...

I really love cheese.  All kinds but my favorite is extra sharp cheddar.  It's my 10:00am snack of choice, paired with some wheat thins.  As usual, I do my grocery shopping for work at the beginning of the week. I eat every two hours so at work I MUST have groceries or I become the co-worker that eats every one's food and let's be honest, nobody likes that person.  While looking for some extra sharp cheddar I notice there is a particular brand that is made from grass fed cows.  Surprisingly it isn't that expensive so I buy it.  Now I've had the pleasure of eating many different types of cheese.  Feta, brie and goat cheese usually are white.  Cheddar, colby jack and velveeta is usually an orange color.  So as you can imagine when I opened my grass fed cow sharp cheddar cheese in my office today (it had a black wrapping) it wasn't orange!  I kinda freaked out a little because I was really craving a nice sharp (orange) cheddar but I went ahead and tried it.  It was the most delicious sharp cheddar I had ever eaten!  It was so sharp and smooth that I only ate a small amount because that's all I needed to get my fix.  So I decided to do some research on orange cheese.  Why is it orange?  Obviously I realize that velveeta is in many ways fake cheese but it's so good I just accept it and move on.  But I've never considered my sharp cheddar...and the fact that it is orange.

The dying of the cheese started long ago in England.  Milk from grass fed cows has a higher level of beta carotene in the Spring and Summer and in the Winter the milk has less beta carotene so the color varies throughout the year.  The dye they use for the orange cheese is called "annatto" which is made from the seeds of a specific tree.  So I suppose that is still considered "natural" but it bothers me that people that sell cheese assume I would find orange cheese more appealing than cheese in it's more natural state.  Also, why haven't I considered this before?  This just reaffirms my belief that I am a product of a world that wants me to be dependant upon it.  Why else would I have a mini freak out when I discover my cheese really isn't orange?

And really why do I care if my cheese is orange?  Well I've been eating a lot of deer meat lately that was killed by my cousin and combine that with the fact that I just read the first Hunger Games book and got this cookbook for Christmas, I've decided to care.  So now I have nightmares of being left in a world where the government rations food and I must rely on my own self for my sustenance. Wasn't this how the world once was?  When my Great Grandmother was little did she eat orange cheese?  Probably not.  Guess I need to take a hunter's safety course...pray for a good Oklahoma growing season in 2012 and learn how to make cheese?  I suppose I should find a cow first...or just find someone local to buy it from. 

Someday when my dh and I retire (a short 30 or so years from now), we plan on traveling the world and eating many different types of food from other places.  I'm really looking forward to all the cheese I'm going to eat.  I imagine the cheese I will eat will be smooth, crumbly, stinky and delicious but hopefully not orange.

Yes, I realize that I should know that cheese isn't naturally orange and maybe I always have known this...I just didn't care?  Didn't question it?  Just ate it because it's what is readily available?  Not sure but I think the older I get, the more I question things in life.  It's a good thing...