Wisconsin Treats, part 1

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What's the FIRST thing you think of when you think of Wisconsin?

Well, ok "Dang Packers" was my first thought too. But AFTER that?

Right. CHEESE.

We spent our first night in Monroe, Wisconsin which is the county seat of Green County Wisconsin which happens to be considered the "Little Switzerland" area of Wisconsin. Driving around the county it does have a vaguely "Swiss" feel to it (if you don't mind the fact that those inclines the cows are wandering across are mostly hills and nothing even remotely reminiscent of an Alp). But what says "Switzerland" more than cheese?

On Sunday afternoon we had the opportunity to visit the "National Historic Cheesemaking Center" in Monroe. My family actually thrives on these kinds of museums. With three kids between eight years and twenty-one months old our attention span for any one thing is pretty limited. Thus, a two room museum with a small gift shop jammed into an old train depot in downtown Monroe is exactly our kind of museum.

Truthfully, it was very interesting. The tour of the museum was led by "Fritz" (yes, that is what was on his nametag) who said he spent 40 plus years working in the cheese industry - mostly on the dairy end of things but also in the cheese making itself. Cheese making began in Wisconsin's Green county in 1845 with very humble beginnings, but by 1850 they were the swiss-style cheese making capital of the country. By 1910 there were over 200 cheese factories in the county. Green county cheese factories made over 95% of the Swiss and Limburger cheese made in the united states at that time (with limburger being the more popular if you believe it)

Today there are only 20 factories in the county (still not bad) including the only factory left in the United States making limburger. We visited the Alp and Dell factory on the north side of Monroe. There you are allowed to take a self guided "tour" of the factory by walking down two hallways studded with windows into the cheese making rooms. There is little available to tell you what it is you are looking at, but this is the second time we have toured this particular factory (the first was five years ago) and both times an employee of the factory ended up coming out to the hallway and giving an impromptu lecture on what happened behind the windows. I don't remember if it was the same person both times, but I do know that both times the person had a STRONG swiss accent and gave a very informative explanation of the cheese making process.

After you are done, the Alp and Dell has a nice store where you can sample many of their cheeses and purchase even more. Especially interesting is their "bargain bin" cheese cooler which turns out to be filled with smaller than normal cuts or "mis cuts" (cheese cut from wheels where the cut happened at the "wrong" angle). We picked up somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds of cheese from five different varieties (baby swiss, gruyere, a hot paper laced havarti, edam, and a "Brau Kase" (brewers cheese which was a slightly less stinky cousin of limburger I would guess)) and paid less than $12. Over the course of the couple of days that followed we have managed to polish off most of this the way cheese was meant to be eaten - a couple of slices or wedges at a time with a piece of bread, a chunk of apple, or just in hand, by itself.

Yummy.

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Photos

Say "Cheese"
Caroline and Margaret stand inside of an old copper milk cooker used in the production of cheese.

National Historic Cheesemaking Center
If you are interested in a history of how cheese was made in the days before shiny metal factories, this free-will donation museum is the place for you.