Cheese!

Eighty-five pounds. That’s the weight of the 24-month-old wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano that cheese specialists at area Whole Foods Markets will crack in public demonstrations this Saturday at 2 p.m. That’s a lot of formaggio. “I’m not in front of one right now,” said Marcia Whelan, marketing team leader with the Town & Country store, “but I’m just gonna guess [a wheel measures] maybe 2 feet wide by at least a foot and a few inches high. It’s heavy. “In fact, not all of our specialty team members can even do it because it’s so heavy,” she continued. “It’s hard to maneuver it, so there is a very specific technique that they have to do to crack it.” Afterward, onlookers will have a chance at fresh, free samples. And if they like the samples of the Parm? “We’ll be agreeable to selling it,” Whelan replied with a laugh.