According to the BBC, an association of cheesemakers from Somerset have come up with a new and innovative marketing campaign for the die-hard cheese lovers amongst us.
The new
cheddarvision webcam is set up so that customers can watch their cheese maturing over the course of a year. The feed was reportedly started on the first day of 2007, but the site had been running for several days before that, and the counter has now reached 10 days.
So, is it legitimate? Difficult to say. The West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers does seem to be a real organisation, and yes, they produce cheese. As to the webcam, that's more difficult to say. Cheese isn't the most mobile of subject matter, and it's nigh impossible to tell whether it is a current web feed or just looped footage. Or, indeed, a photograph.
(Thanks, Dave.)
UPDATE 2/4/07: It is clear now that this is a real web feed.
Here is a time lapse video of months 0-3.
(Thanks, Beasjt.)
Comments
Oh did I say "plate". There's nothing as nice as a good plate of cheese.
"What's next? A channel where viewers can watch paint dry?"
"The paint drying channel" is how my sister-in-law Judy refers to the show How It's Made, which demonstrated the manufacturing process of such fascinating things like Venetian blinds.
As to the cheesecam, I think they should have done it in 3-D and handed out those red and blue glasses to people to watch it in all its fermenting glory.
I'm afraid this is not a hoax - I actually set up the axis camera for this.
The cheese in question was - I believe - the last one to be made at the Westcombe dairy before the new year - it was made on the 23rd December (hence this is when the counter was started). The site officially launched on 01/01/2007.
You should be able to notice the lights go on most days in the morning (but not necessarily for the whole day)
There is a paint-peeling camera somewhere on the internet, but I guarantee thaqt cheddarvision.tv will be more interesting when the mold starts to grow, and when we release the time-lapse videos of the mold growing!
please keep watching...
Gez
The object is to illustrate the mautring process, so it needs to be relativley live - however it is chesse maturing so it doesn't need to be 25 fps!
We decided not to run a live video feed to conserve bandwidth and increase reliability - so the page checks for a new photo every 30 seconds. New images are saved each hour, or evey 3-5 seconds if the motion detection notices that something is happening. honest..
... which would make this more like the "paint that starts out already dry and then doesn't do anything" channel.
http://www.farmhousecheesemakers.com/about_us/our_cheesemakers/default_6.html
If you look in the background of the webcam shot when the lights are on (usually mid-morning GMT), you can see some of the older cheese..
I suppose that he could always take requests of certain actions in order to prove that it's real, if he feels like it. Maybe put a purple marble in the foreground, or whatever.
Can you say "hypocritical"?
(Or maybe there wouldn't be so much speculation (free publicity) if they did.
It is his wedding after-all and it would offer a kind of proof or verification.
Thank you.
. . . taking requests though is inspired!! 😊 .. come on Gez - can we make requests?!!
It is rather Moon colour at the moment.
Ain't edukashun wonerfull
The cheese will be delivered on the day of Martin's (see post above) wedding - he phoned them to ask for it.
Thank you Gez and Tom.
It is now Martin's cheese and will be used rather than a wedding cake. Aaaaaahhhhhhh!
The other day I forgot to put a cheeseball back in the refridgerator. It sat out from about noon to 8:30 pm. My mom said cheese doesn't go bad if it's out for a couple of hours and she still wants me to eat it (she paid a lot of money for it, she said) but I'm not sure it's safe...
Any mould on cheese can be cut off and the cheese is fine - unlike bread, any mould and chuck the lot.
Do what mother says, unless you have good reason to believe your mother is trying to kill you...
The beginning..
http://www.cheddarvision.tv/
It's him!
If his face appears on bread is he truly risen?
Now that's culture.
(I can't believe nobody else said it)
It is also said on the site theres a video where u can watch the cheese bieng made.
funny that.
(sorry Gez)
HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Pretty please, with cheese on top??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVMt9ECdOjA
. . . red nose day ( UK thing ), valentines... this cheese is getting a lot of love 😊 . . . it's even, I think, been adopted by a school over in the states!
ITS CHEESE. Get a life