David Jacks' story begins in Crief, Scotland, located 40 miles northeast of Edinburgh, where he was born in 1822. Letters written to Jacks by his sister years later portray life in Crief as bleak. It is no wonder David Jacks immigrated to America in 1841, at the age of 19, to join his two older brothers who had already established themselves as shopkeepers on Long Island. He ventured out on his own in the mid 1840s, finding employment at Brooklyn's Fort Hamilton, overlooking New York Harbor.

Who invented Monterey Jack Cheese? Was it David Jacks, the man who lays claim to putting the Jack in jack cheese? Or was it Dona Juana Cota de Boronda? Or Domingo Pedrazziof Carmel Valley? There are other versions and other stories as well and I think that you will be surprised with what you find out.

Contaminated cheese has been responsible for outbreaks of food poisoning by several types of bacteria and sporadic cases of illness associated with contaminated cheeses have also been reported. Experience shows that there have probably been many others that were undetected or unreported. Some of these bacteria can cause severe illness with long-term consequences and death. For example, Listeria monocytogenes can cause meningitis and septicemia with up to 30% mortality. Gastroenteritis due to Salmonella spp.

There are hundreds of varieties of cheese in Europe; some of them are:

Bel Paese
A delicate soft Italian cheese.

Bleu Cheese
A blue, French cheese which is available in different varieties designated by the name of the district where it was made.

The California cheese story goes back more than two centuries to the arrival of the Franciscan padres in what is now known as California. The road by which it arrived here goes back as much as 2,000 years.