A postscript to my earlier post about visting Wisconsin cheesemaking operations. In Mid-June I drove down from Minneapolis and spent two night in Madison before heading back to Mnpls to fly out. I visited three cheesemaking operations and one commercial dairy. I have pictures and some additional narrative posted here:
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll5/marksto/Wisconsin%20Cheese/The areas south and west of Madison are one of several primary zones within Wisconsin with extensive dairy operations, and cheesemaking obviously follows. It is beautiful country with rolling green hills and small to medium dairy farms just about everywhere. In this area I visited the Edelweiss Creamery and the Silver-Lewis cheese cooperative. Edelweiss is relatively new, having begun about 8 years is the building that formerly housed Prima Kase cheese, and Silver Lewis is around 100 years old.
Finally, on the drive back to Mnpls I stopped at Hollands cheese in Thorp in central Wisconsin. Hollands has been running since 19XX by a family who emigrated from Holland. They are a farmstead operation, with one part of the family owning the dairy and another the creamery. The milk is piped directly into the creamery from the adjacent dairy. They make strictly gouda cheeses, with about 20 different varieties and ages.
It was really interesting to see these different operations and I especially enjoyed learning about the dairy and milk operations behind the cheesemaking. I now understand much better the concepts behind artisanal and farmstead operations. Interestingly, none of the ones I visited were truly traditional in using both milk from pasture cows and an unpasteurized product. Edelweiss does use some pasture milk in their swiss but they pasteurize it, and Hollands uses raw milk but it is not pasture. One thing I would do different the next time is try to nail down some of the cheesemakers that are truly traditional in incorporating both. The sheer number of cheesemakers in the state makes it a bit of a chore to deduce down but it would be worth the effort.
One other interesting bit of info – Wisconsin is the only state that requires a license to make cheese. Also, I wish I had taken a picture of the menu and pricing at the small retail counter at Silver-Lewis cooperative. I was stunned to learn that the prices were all per-pound. They had about 18 different cheeses made on site and all were in the $2-$5 per lb range. Where I’m from, you can’t touch any cheese you’d want to eat for less than at least $8-$9 per lb. Talk about cheap…
