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 Travel Log on May 22, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s been nearly a month since we visited the Center for Dairy Research in Madison and interviewed a number of the key players in the Master Cheesemaker program. So — with regrets on the delay — here are a few of the most interesting quotes we gathered from their staffers:
Dean Sommer, Cheese & Food Technologist: [...]
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, 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, 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 [...]
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on April 13, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s not clear that we’re going to visit every giant cheese mouse in the state of Wisconsin, but it seems likely we’ll get 90 or 95 percent of them. Here’s one from Kris’ Cheese to Please, a charming cheese shop in Plymouth, where we visited master cheesemaker Jeff Mattes.
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on April 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
As previously detailed, our trip back to the eastern part of the state turned into an exercise in gluttonous abandon, featuring Antigo bacon, De Pere chocolate, Cedarburg cinnamon rolls, Sheboygan brats and ample cheese.
Our first stop was in Antigo, where we visited one of Sartori’s two masters, Larry Steckbauer. His story — of how his [...]
