Piers Bachman of Medford enjoys time with friends wearing a cheese head hat during the Oregon Cheese Festival at the Jackson County Expo Saturday.

All things cheese and much more filled the Jackson County Expo Saturday in Central Point at the annual Oregon Cheese Festival, with 100-plus vendor booths placed amid the bustle of excited visitors ready to sample a wide range of offerings. It all continues Sunday.

Situated at The Expo after years at Central Point’s Rogue Creamery, the festival brought out plenty of vendors and hundreds of attendees lining up to try samples.

The Oregon Cheese Festival includes more than just cheese, with visiting businesses offering wine, jams and jellies, charcuterie, chocolate, honey, hot sauce and much more.

“It’s so much fun to get to connect with the different cheesemakers from across the state and beyond and to explore all the products that go along with cheese. It’s such a treasure trove of delicious food here,” said Marguerite Merritt, cheese emissary and marketing manager for Rogue Creamery, one of the vendors in attendance.

“We’ll be here all weekend just living it up and getting cheesy,” said Shannon Reiland, associate manager with Face Rock Creamery.

The festival runs until 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 28. The Expo is at 1 Peninger Road, Central Point. Admission costs $25 per person to attend Sunday with a $15 add-on charge to sample all the cheese, food and beverage varieties on offer. To purchase tickets, visit oregoncheesefestival.com.

Set up smack-dab in the middle of the venue, Rogue Creamery had plenty for people to sample at its booth.

“We’ve got six different types of cheeses we’re sampling today for Rogue Creamery in addition to several different types of merchandise: T-shirts, stickers, brand-new insulated cooler bags, lots of fun stuff,” Merritt said.

The Central Point-based creamery had many cheeses on offer, from world-class blue cheese to new additions.

“I’m loving our chocolate stout cheddar right now, and it’s made with chocolate stout beer. It’s a little bit malty, and we’ve aged it about a year and a half at this point, and its got a wonderful sharp finish that pairs beautifully with that maltiness,” Merritt said, adding, “We also have our world champion Rogue River Blue Cheese up for sampling, which is a cheese with no equal.”

The Rogue River Blue truly has no equal, earning World Champion Cheese status at the 2019/2020 World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy.

The Oregon Cheese Festival’s origin is heavily tied to Rogue Creamery, first starting in 2005 at the creamery’s parking lot after being conceived by former Rogue Creamery president David Gremmels.

“It is really meaningful to all of us at Rogue Creamery to be a part of the cheese festival … It was a tiny event back then, and to see what it has become since then is really inspiring,” Merritt said.

A few booths over, Bandon’s Face Rock Creamery was providing traditional tasty samples, as well as rare, limited-production cheeses.

“We have our curds and our forage on that table, and we have our clothbound cheddars there,” Reiland said. “We did bring a special cheese — red Leicester — it’s only available here, so once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

“Vampire (Slayer Garlic Cheddar) is always the most popular, whether it be in curd form or cheddar form. Vampire’s always the favorite,” Reiland added.

Outside of the creameries, the festival boasted a wide range of complimentary foods and goods such as Upper Rogue Organics’ artisan salsa.

“We’re a small farm here in the Rogue Valley. Our farm is up in Prospect, and we grow a variety of vegetables, but we also do salsas,” said Eric Navickas of Upper Rogue Organics.

Three salsas were available to sample and purchase, including a roasted tomatillo traditional Mexican salsa with tomatillos and roasted peppers, a ranchero salsa with roasted tomato and a little more spice, and the habanero salsa with plenty of spice from a carrot base infused with lime juice and habaneros, a common salsa enjoyed in Belize.

“This is our second year doing the cheese festival, and it’s always a really good event. They do a really good job organizing it, and it’s fun just to walk around and taste other people’s products and try all the cheeses especially,” Navickas said.

Coming from California, Riley’s Jerky brought a variety of the nutrient-dense meat snack. Flavors included peppered, original, teriyaki, jalapeño, sweet and spicy, Cajun and Hawaiian.

The family-owned business has been offering traditional homemade-style jerky since 1981.

“It’s not for everybody because of the dry, tough nature of it, but that texture and that taste is what sets us apart,” said Trevor Bentz, sales manager for Riley’s Jerky.

For Rogue Valley residents Dustin and Kimberly Unger, the Oregon Cheese Festival is a weekend to look forward to every year.

“We do all the festivals, and we love this one because cheese obviously, and also the other vendors that you have here; you have different kinds of wines and spirits and beers and the truck that comes out,” Kimberly Unger said.

The Ungers have been attending the festival since it started at Rogue Creamery.

“It’s a great event. We love it,” Dustin Unger said.

“The enthusiasm from the local fans of cheese is what this event is all about,” said Katie Bray, executive director of the Oregon Cheese Guild. “You really get your whole cheese party in one event, in one place.”

Held in Ashland last year and moving to The Expo for 2024, Bray and other organizers intend to continue the festival at the Central Point venue for years to come.

“The Expo makes it so easy with all the free parking and all the facilities here and resources that are available. We don’t have to bring everything from outside, and they just make it so easy, we love it,” Bray said.