Posted in Photos, Travel Log on May 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
We’ve had so many tremendous visits with cheesemakers that it would be unfair to play favorites and single anyone out in terms of providing a particularly good tour. And yet, it’s hard to get around the fact that not only did newly graduated master cheesemaker Tom Torkelson show us around his plant, canned milk loading [...]
Posted in Photos, Talking Cows, Travel Log on May 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Through a random accident of scheduling, our last interview happened to be with David Lindgren, whose plant is near Neillsville on Highway 10. Neillsville, as it turns out, is home to Chatty Belle, the world’s largest talking cow. She’s about 16 feet high by 20 feet long, which is plenty big.
Now, it should be understood [...]
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on May 17, 2008 | No Comments »
This was our last week of frantic road-tripping, and it’s been bittersweet. On one hand, we’ve driven more than 7,500 miles, and we’re tired. On the other hand, we’ve met some wonderful people and tasted some amazing cheeses, and it’s kind of hard to think we won’t be going out to any more plants… at [...]
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on May 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Spring arrived with a vengeance for our last week of roadtripping. Here’s an abridged selection of my favorite shots (Becca got oodles of good ones this week).
She took this spring landscape somewhere in northeastern Wisconsin:
The budding plant was snapped on the banks of the St. Croix river, as we crossed back to Minnesota from Wisconsin [...]
Posted in Photos, Tasting Notes on May 14, 2008 | No Comments »
Before visiting with Richard Wold at AMPI, we stopped by the company store and picked up some butter, pudding and a pound of the jalapeño monterey jack. As it turns out, Wold was quite proud of his spicy jacks; his habañero jack won second prize at the 2008 World Championship Cheese Contest, and he was [...]
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on May 10, 2008 | No Comments »
A recent excursion brought us to the Bass Lake Cheese Factory near Somerset, WI. Master cheesemaker Scott Erickson was a hell of a good host, gamely answering questions for 45 minutes, tolerating the attention of a video crew that was tagging along with us, and demonstrating a session of chevre salting and curd tasting.
I’m happy [...]
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on May 5, 2008 | No Comments »
We got our first big multigenerational cheesemaking photo at LaGrander’s Hillside Dairy, courtesy of master cheesemaker Randy LaGrander. The shot depicts Randy (center), his father Dan (who’s still active around the factory), and his sons Joe and Ryan.
We also got a chance to try (and buy) some of LaGrander’s aged cheddar, which we quite enjoyed. [...]
Posted in Photos on May 5, 2008 | No Comments »
…from the shop at LaGrander’s Hillside Dairy.
Posted in Photos on May 5, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on May 1, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s official: We’ve interviewed all the masters that Green County has to offer. It took three visits, but we’ve wrapped up the south-central part of Wisconsin. All (?) that are left are visits to another eight or nine cheesemakers in the northwest and central-western parts of the state.
We kicked off our trip by visiting the [...]
