Madison Trapkin – FoodWatcher

This Cheesemaker Took a Cue From the Moon to Craft Hill Valley’s First Award-Winning Wisconsin Original

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

If you grew up in the ‘90s like I did, chances are high that you al…

We've teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

If you grew up in the ‘90s like I did, chances are high that you also watched the charmingly British series of short films featuring Wallace and his clever dog, Gromit. In an installment titled A Grand Day Out, Wallace and Gromit realize they’ve eaten through their cheese stores, so they embark on a quest to find more. Naturally, their journey takes them to the moon—that big, pale yellow orb in the sky with its Swiss cheese-like holes. Spoiler alert: Wallace and Gromit discover that the moon is not, in fact, made of cheese and return home without any additional curds in tow.

Meet the Woman Bringing a Fresh Perspective to Roth Cheese

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

Cheese has been made in Wisconsin since before it was even a state….

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

Cheese has been made in Wisconsin since before it was even a state. In the 1830s and 40s, a wave of European immigrants planted roots in the region and started dairy farms, where they made homemade cheeses to get the most out of all that milk. It was a woman in fact, Anne Pickett, who started the first official cheesemaking business in the area, a whole seven years before Wisconsin joined the union in 1848. This time period also saw the creation of now-classic Wisconsin cheeses—namely Brick (we have the folks at Widmer’s Cheese Cellars to thank for this) and Colby. By 1910, the state surpassed New York in milk production, earning it the nickname, “America’s Dairyland.”

How a Fourth-Generation-Owned Family Cheese Business Built Its Legacy, Brick by Brick

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

When you grow up in a family that owns a business, there are typica…

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

When you grow up in a family that owns a business, there are typically two outcomes when it comes to your future: you either run as far as you can in the other direction and never look back, or you fall in step with the generations that came before you and eventually take the reins. Of course, both paths have merit, especially when there’s delicious food involved.

Marieke Penterman Is Making Damn Good Gouda in the Heart of Wisconsin

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

In 2019 I was lucky enough to attend the annual American Cheese Soc…

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.

In 2019 I was lucky enough to attend the annual American Cheese Society Awards, hosted that year in Richmond, Virginia. Of the many fond memories I have from that trip, there’s one in particular that tends to rise to the top of my mind whenever I’m reflecting on it: a massive sea of proud Wisconsin cheesemakers cheering each other on as the state took home win after win for its incredible cheeses. I lost count of the number of awards that the state’s cheesemakers took home for cheddars and cheese curds—I’d expected them to shine in those categories. What I wasn’t expecting was for a Wisconsin cheesemaker to take home not one, but two awards for Gouda, a cheese I’d long associated only with Europe.

Our 52 Favorite Sights, Sips, Snacks & More in Lexington

This article—shared in partnership with our friends at VisitLex—is part of 52Cities, a column where we share editor-curated and community-loved recommendations for visiting our favorite places.

As a native Atlantan, I’m no stranger to visiting South…

This article—shared in partnership with our friends at VisitLex—is part of 52Cities, a column where we share editor-curated and community-loved recommendations for visiting our favorite places.

As a native Atlantan, I’m no stranger to visiting Southern cities—spring breaks spent in Florida beach towns, Girl Scouts trips to Savannah, an especially memorable New Year’s Eve in Nashville, and plenty of weekend getaways in the Carolinas. But up until recently, I’d never spent much time in Kentucky. Sure, there was the family pilgrimage to Mammoth Cave when I was a teenager, too cool to appreciate the wonders of eyeless fish (Google it) and the world’s largest underground cave system, but the Bluegrass State had yet to pull me in. After a recent trip to Lexington, all of that changed.

20 Summery Recipes to Make the Most of California-Grown Produce

We’ve partnered with California Grown to celebrate all the ways you can cook with fresh, high-quality produce and ingredients (we’re talking fruits, vegetables, nuts, and more) from The Golden State.

Seasonal produce doesn’t get much better than in …

We've partnered with California Grown to celebrate all the ways you can cook with fresh, high-quality produce and ingredients (we're talking fruits, vegetables, nuts, and more) from The Golden State.

Seasonal produce doesn't get much better than in the perpetually sunny, Mediterranean climate that is California. Culinary greats like Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, and Dominique Crenn have long championed the local farmers responsible for said produce at their respective restaurants (Chez Panisse, The French Laundry, and Atelier Crenn), highlighting the natural beauty of each food through simple yet impactful cooking techniques. Despite growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, hundreds of miles from any of these establishments, I was lucky enough to have a mom who also valued sustainable, locally sourced food—and who loved hauling me and my sister across the country in search of incredible meals. This is how I found myself in the Chez Panisse dining room at the tender age of 13 with a plate of strikingly green veggies and beautifully coral Pacific king salmon in front of me.

Chris Roelli’s Cheddar Has the Blues—But That’s a Very Good Thing

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

Each type of cheese has a unique history, some lengthier than other…

We've teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

Each type of cheese has a unique history, some lengthier than others, and many with layers of folklore woven in for good measure. Take, for instance, Camembert, allegedly invented by an 18th-century dairymaid named Marie Harel who was inspired by a French priest making Brie in the height of the French Revolution. Or, consider the more easily traced tale of Gorgonzola, most likely named for the town of Gorgonzola, Italy in which it was first produced around A.D. 879. And then, there's the decidedly straightforward story of cheddar with its first recorded making in Cheddar, England in the 12th century. Eventually, cheddar made its way stateside, and by the mid-19th century it was the most widely produced cheese in the United States.

Pam Hodgson is Paving the Way for Wisconsin’s Women in Cheese

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

I’ve been surrounded by women with a knack for cooking for as long …

We've teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

I’ve been surrounded by women with a knack for cooking for as long as I can remember. My mom is a chef and caterer, and while her mother wasn’t exactly a gourmand (she loved a canned vegetable moment), Granbobbie made some really amazing dishes in her time, including her famous potato salad. On my dad’s side, I have an aunt who’s been responsible for the Thanksgiving sweet potatoes since before I was born—to be clear, they’re about 50 percent sweet potato, and the rest of the recipe is essentially butter and sugar. I’m told my dad’s mom, my Bestemama, could make a mean batch of lefse that she served with butter and jam. These women shaped me and my sister, and today we carry on their love for cooking in our own homes.

Meet the Fourth-Generation Wisconsin Cheesemaker Churning Out Over 90 Types of Specialty Cheese

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

As a kid, I associated Wisconsin with the Green Bay Packers and not…

We've teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

As a kid, I associated Wisconsin with the Green Bay Packers and not much else, thanks to my mom's best friend Jamie, a Wisconsin native and a die-hard fan. Decades later, Jamie still loves the Packers, but I now know that there's much more to Wisconsin than just football: The state's dairy and cheesemaking industry happens to be one of the finest in the world (yes, world!). Makers like Sid Cook of Carr Valley Cheese have been shaping the region's cheesy story for over a century—in fact, Carr Valley's been in business since 1902. I sat down with Sid at their Mauston factory and retail store to learn more about their impressive lineup of cheeses, his journey to cheesemaking, and what the future holds for the Carr Valley crew.

Cheesemaker Andy Hatch Is Dreaming Up New American Classics in Wisconsin

We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

The world of cheese is made up of many colorful characters. There a…

We've teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Cheesemakers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest makers and their award-winning creations.

The world of cheese is made up of many colorful characters. There are the knowledgeable mongers who'll help you pick out your new favorite wedge while regaling you with more facts about the cheese in question than you knew existed. There are the cheese cave-dwelling affineurs whose precision and detail-oriented nature produces perfectly aged cheeses of all shapes and sizes. There are the dairy farmers, who are stewards of the land, masters of terrain, and typically have a herd in tow. There are the cheesemakers, who tend to be equal parts artist and scientist, harnessing the power of milk and cultures to craft each wheel. And then, there are the unicorns like Uplands Cheese who do it all—they milk the cows, make the cheese, age it on site, and ship directly to consumers. Farmstead operations like theirs are few and far between, even in America's Dairyland (aka Wisconsin). I sat down with Andy Hatch of Uplands Cheese to chat about what it's like to be a Wisconsin cheesemaker, their artisan cheeses, and camaraderie in the dairy community.