Rising to the Top

Visiting creameries has been a vacation tradition in Wisconsin for almost as long as the state’s been known as America’s Dairyland.

By Jeanette Hurt | PHOTO BY LAYNE KENNEDY/CORBIS

But there’s a lot more to this wedge of Midwestern heritage than fresh cheese curds and Colby longhorns. This quaint practice has recently gone decidedly upscale, as more of Wisconsin’s cheesemakers have become artisan producers, crafting American original and specialty cheeses. In fact, Wisconsin produces more specialty cheese than any other state, and it takes home more national and international cheese awards than any other dairy region in the world.

“We are sitting on top of one of the richest cheesemaking areas on the planet,” says Patrick Geoghegan, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board’s senior vice president of corporate communications and president of the Dairy Business Innovation Center. “Cheese is very hot right now. We’re sort of where the wine industry was 15 or 20 years ago. We produce more than 600 varieties of cheese, which is far and away more than any other state.”

Many of these cheeses are created in small batches in family-owned cheese factories, where visitors can see the process. Perhaps the best place to start is in south-central and southwestern Wisconsin, where you’ll find the state’s largest concentration of master cheesemakers.

Green County has three must-visit creameries. The first is Roth Käse, a family company that started in Switzerland five generations ago, in 1863. At the turn of the previous century, Roth Käse began sending its cheeses to the United States, and in 1991, Felix and Ulrich Roth and their cousin Fermo Jaeckle decided to make the move here.

Visitors can take a formal tour of the plant, or just watch production of the award-winning Gruyere through a viewing window. Especially worth trying is Roth’s Private Reserve, a complex washed rind cheese that took first runner up in both the 2007 U.S. Cheese Championship and 2007 American Cheese Society competitions. The creamery also boasts a sleek, stainless-steel test kitchen for visiting chefs, and there are tentative plans to open it up to classes for the general public.

A couple of miles down the road is another Swiss-inspired creamery, the tiny Edelweiss Town Hall Cheese Co., which is where you’ll find master cheesemaker Bruce Workman, previously with Roth Käse, crafting the only 200-pound wheels of Emmentaler in the U.S. Making four 200-pound wheels takes 82,000 pounds of milk. Each wheel then has to be aged for several months, during which Workman—holder of the most Master’s Certificates in the state—washes each rind by hand. Another interesting fact: Workman bought his copper vats from a cheesemaking school that was going out of business in Switzerland.

The last must-visit stop in Green County is the Chalet Cheese Cooperative. This farmer-owned cooperative, started in 1885, produces award-winning baby Swiss and is known for its Limburger. In fact, Chalet is the only cheese factory in the United States to still make this pungent cheese. Master cheesemaker Myron Olson even has a special Limburger license. “In the ’50s and ’60s, there used to be a lot of Swiss plants. In the off-season, when they couldn’t make a full wheel of Swiss, they would make Limburger,” Olson says. “There was a glut of Limburger in the market, so the government said if you’re going to make it, you need a license. They don’t require it any longer.”

Though not Limburger-licensed, master cheesemaker Sid Cook is perhaps the most famous cheesemaker in the state.

A fourth-generation cheesemaker and owner of Carr Valley Cheese, Cook makes more than 60 different cheeses, which have earned more than 75 national and international awards.

Many of his cheeses are considered American originals—specialty cheeses that do not have a European counterpart. For example, Cook makes Cocoa Cardona, an aged goat milk cheese rubbed with cocoa powder.

“We make about 20 different American originals,” Cook says. “Our cheeses have even found their way into the hands of movie stars. Bill Cosby’s had my cheese and so has Mira Sorvino.” But you don’t have to be a celebrity to visit his creamery, nor to take classes at his new culinary school in La Valle (between Madison and La Crosse).

Another south-central stop is Cedar Grove Cheese. Not only has Bob Wills been at the forefront of organic cheese making, he is at the cutting edge of conservation as well. In 1993, Wills became the first cheesemaker in the country to declare his cheese rBGH-free, or without synthetic bovine growth hormone. And just a decade later, his creamery became the first one to have a “Living Machine” installed to treat the wastewater generated by cheese production. The system of 10 tanks purifies the water using tropical plants and microbes.

Innovative cheesemakers can also be found in northwest Wisconsin—including Marieke Penterman and her husband Rolf, who moved to Thorp, Wis., in 2002 from the Netherlands. Each grew up on a Dutch dairy farm and moved to follow their dream of owning one of their own: Holland’s Family Farm. A hankering for real Dutch Gouda led them into cheesemaking, and Marieke returned to Holland to study the craft. Although she’s only made cheese for a year, her aged farmhouse Gouda has already won national awards.

Also in northwest Wisconsin, in Osseo, is Castle Rock Organic Dairy. This small family dairy not only makes an amazing blue cheese, but also ice cream, butter, and they even can bottle their own milk.

Near Milwaukee, in Theresa, is where you’ll find Joe Widmer, who works in the same tiny cheese factory his grandfather once worked. In fact, Widmer’s Cheese Cellars uses the same Cream City bricks to press the whey out of the Brick cheese. The brand is known for its real Colbies. “A lot of cheeses labeled as Colby really are mild cheddars,” Widmer says. “Colby has small, irregular holes.”

Kerry Henning and his sister Kay also run a small creamery with a lot of history. Like Widmer, he is a third-generation cheesemaker, but Henning’s Cheese specializes in big cheese—giant cheese, that is. Located in Kiel (between Green Bay and Milwaukee), it’s the only cheese factory in the state that makes mammoth cheddars—wheels that can weigh as much as 54,000 pounds. They are so show stopping, a local TV crew films them regularly. “We get phone calls from our customers who say ‘I saw your cheese on TV,’” Kerry says.

Many of Wisconsin’s cheesemakers have been featured on television and next year, several will be on an episode of an Australian TV show, “Cheese Slices.” Now that’s something worthy of cheesehead pride. ■

MIDWEST AIRLINES offers daily flights throughout Wisconsin. Details can be found at www.midwestairlines.com.

MORE TO EXPLORE

Everyone knows that wine pairs well with cheese, but did you know that beer does, too? Here are some breweries, a wine bar and cheese museum not to be missed.

In northwest Wisconsin, you’ll find Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company (leinie.com; 888-534-6437), the seventh oldest brewery in the country, in Chippewa Falls. And in southwest Wisconsin, there’s New Glarus Brewing Company (www.newglarusbrewing.com; 608-527-5850).

If you prefer wine, a stop at The Winery Bar at The American Club (www.destinationkohler.com; 920-457-8888) is in order. Not only does this chic little bar feature an ample wine list, but it also boasts its own cheese cellar, which specializes in small, hard-to-find artisan Wisconsin cheeses.

After all that, if you still haven’t had enough cheese, visit the Historic Cheesemaking Center (608-325-4636), which is also the Green County Welcome Center. This little museum boasts old copper cheese vats, antique packaging items and even an old phone booth, which is where cheese buyers used to call in sales at the National Cheese Exchange in Green Bay.

CHEESY FACTS

Besides its numerous American originals, Wisconsin is the birthplace of two standard cheeses— Brick and Colby.

Wisconsin is the fifth-largest cheese producing region in the world.

Cheeseheads, those foamy domes that Packer fans sport at football games, are actually not modeled after a real cheese. They’re orange like cheddar, but if you look closely, they have holes like Swiss.

TO LEARN MORE:

Roth Käse
608-328-2122
www.rothkase.com

Edelweiss Town Hall Cheese Co.
608-938-4094

Chalet Cheese Cooperative
608-325-4343

Carr Valley Cheese
608-986-2781
www.carrvalleycheese.com

Cedar Grove Cheese
800-200-6020
www.cedargrovecheese.com

Holland’s Family Farm
608-828-4550
www.hollandsfamilycheese.com

Castle Rock Organic Farms
715-597-0085
www.castlerockfarms.net

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars
888-878-1107
www.widmerscheese.com

Henning’s Cheese
920-894-3032
www.henningscheese.com