My daughter-in-law, Kate, is the California Dairy Queen. She never had a formal coronation, but since she started working with the California Milk Advisory Board that’s what I call her.
The California dairy industry is a significant part of California’s agricultural community. Milk has the highest farm revenue among California agricultural commodities. California ranks first out of the fifty states in dairy production. In 2024 the state had about 1,000 dairy farms and 1.715 million dairy cows. Most of the farms are family owned.
As the California Dairy Queen, her primary job is to promote California Dairy. She represents California milk at a number of functions throughout the country. She’s very good at what she does, and although she won’t say it, I think she excels in the promotion of California milk to the cheese industry. She knows her cheese.
Her expertise in cheese may be associated with her taste in wine. She knows what goes with what. It’s a gift. She may have inherited it from her mother. Her mom enjoys exploring California vineyards. Before Jackson was born, Mike and Kate took a few winery tours with Kate’s parents. They always had a good time and came home with several treasures from their excursions.
My knowledge of wine and cheese is extremely limited. I do like a good grilled cheese sandwich. My mom used to make them out of Velveetta. I think California cows may be too classy for Velveetta because it’s technically not a real cheese but rather a “processed cheese product”. I think it’s a member of the Cheez-Whiz family.
Kate deals with more refined cheese. She has several samples in her refrigerator so it’s like going to a cheese festival whenever I visit. The last time I was in California I learned that I should avoid bags of shredded cheese. While such a bag might be convenient, it’s not one-hundred percent cheese. The manufacturers sprinkle some kind of magic dust on the cheese, so it won’t stick together. You’re better off getting a block of cheese and shredding your own if you want one-hundred percent cheese. You can Google it if you want. You’ll find that I’m correct. The California Dairy Queen would never lie.
I think one of my strong suits is being able to get a good read on people when I first meet them. I was very wrong when I first met Kate. Ruth and I met her and Mike for lunch in Lansing almost twenty years ago. She was dressed in black and had short black-cherry colored hair. I thought she was goth. I was wrong.
If all the people in the world lined up from most goth to least, she’d be standing right behind me.
It was Kate’s birthday last Friday, so she’s been in my thoughts all week. In addition to being the California Dairy Queen, she is more importantly my youngest son’s wife and young Jackson James’ mom. She excels at both roles. She’s not perfect but always has her family’s best interest at heart. That’s what I like most about her. Her heart.
Happy birthday Kate.