Western Wisconsin Roundup

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 least not anytime soon.

We started the week by heading up to the remarkable Burnett Dairy in Alpha, WI. (Cheese Underground has a great post about their artisan Alpha’s Morning Sun, a block of which is now in our fridge waiting for a taste test.)

We met with the successful co-op’s two master cheesemakers, the avuncular Steve Tollers and the dryly charming Bruce Willis. (Not that Bruce Willis, no.)

Here’s Tollers:

And Willis:

The Burnett shop was as interesting as the plant — it was just thronged with patrons and seemed to be a community gathering point of some significance.

We also visited with Richard Glick, a semi-retired (but still consulting) master cheesemaker whose skill with blue and gorgonzola cheeses is legendary. He regaled us with stories about tweaking and improving recipes for blue and gorgonzola and the “what if?” impulse that drives hands-on cheesemakers.

Here’s Glick wearing his master’s ring:

And here are some of the old process cheese crates that he’s collected:

We stopped by to visit John Moran again; on our previous visit, he wasn’t making cheese, so we caught up with him and a vat of Colby.

Unfortunately, we managed to turn up right in the middle of an emergency power outage drill, meaning that the photo session was a little shorter than we’d hoped.

Finally, this Friday, we met up with David Lindgren of Lynn Dairy. The trip was fantastic — it was perfect weather, Lindgren was a gracious host, and we got some good quotes and photos. It doesn’t hurt that Lynn Dairy still uses some Amish milk and is located in is one of the most beautiful parts of the state that we’ve seen.

Next and finally: Tom Torkelson. Normally we’d work him into this roundup-style post, but we got so much great stuff we’re breaking him off into his own writeup.

A Sight for Sore, Frostbitten Eyes

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 after visiting the Burnett Dairy:

And — although we have the location information somewhere — I have no idea at the moment from where these Holsteins hail:

The Map Turned Blue

Gaze upon the glory that is the completed cheesemaker interview map. We did our last interview, with David Lindgren of Lynn Dairy, on Friday. So, every blue pin indicates a cheesemaker we’ve driven out to visit, interview and photograph.

Astute observers may count only 43 map pins, although there are 44 active master cheesemakers. We won’t get a chance to talk to Allan Scott of Saputo. We drove the five hours of Green Bay to keep an appointment to meet with him, but he called at the last minute to say that circumstances made him too busy to meet with us. We then drove the 280 miles back to Minneapolis. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.

Ultimately, we still managed to get a lot done.

By the numbers: We traveled 7,628 miles to visit 43 cheesemakers at 33 different plants. If we’d been driving in a big straight line, we could’ve gone from New York City to Los Angeles back to New York City and then back out to El Paso, Texas. I don’t know how much money we spent on cheese (we probably lost half the receipts), but that’s just as well. I’m sure it’s a lot

Now, we just need to write the book in the next couple of weeks.

Also: Here are the cheese-related contents of our fridge. We’re thinking about opening a shop.

Tasting Notes: AMPI Jalapeño Jack

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 even more proud of his jalapeño jack.

Unlike a number of jalapeño — and even habañero — jacks that we’ve had, the AMPI version packs real heat. The flavor is well balanced, however, standing out from the mild, moist, creamy cheese without completely overwhelming it. Pleasant on its own, it’s delicious on a cracker.

MvC Pasta

After a long day of driving and cheese interviews — followed by book writing for me and a photographer meetup for Becca — the two of us were famished. I went to the fridge and hatched a plan.

BelGioioso and Sartori are two of the state’s finest (rival) Italian-style cheesemakers. So, my goal was to marry the two in a dish that’s wicked easy to make on the fly.

The result: MvC (Montague versus Capulet) pasta. The earthy, creamy depth of Sartori’s Bellavitano plays nicely with the mild, buttery aspect of grated American Grana. Meanwhile, the heat of cherry peppers knifes through the mellow warmth of the butter, cheese and hot pasta. Sun-dried tomatoes round everything out.

Becca and I like our food spicy; if you don’t, cut the amount of hot cherry peppers in half. As it is, I feel like the repetition of the number “2″ in the ingredient list helps drive home the theme of star-crossed lovers who make beautiful music together. Before being devoured for dinner. I guess the metaphor collapses after a certain point.

MvC Pasta

2 servings of pasta (shells or campagnelle are particularly good)
2 tbsp. chopped hot cherry peppers
2 tbsp. chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 tbsp. grated Bellavitano
2 tbsp. grated American Grana
2 tbsp. of butter, sliced into small pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients with hot pasta so that cheese and butter melt completely. Serve immediately.

Bass Lake Cheese Factory

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 to report that chevre curds, after hanging for a few days in nylon bags to build up the proper level of acidity, are as distinctive as the cheese itself — different, but quite delicious. The curds had a pure, clean flavor and a cloud-like texture… each tiny mouthful was spiked by a note of tangy acid.

Erickson salted the chevre curds after transferring them (by hand, of course) from their bags to stainless steel forms. We tried both salted and unsalted curds; I slightly preferred the latter, as they were a perfect chance to taste what goat cheese’s distinct, gently acidic note tastes like before the rest of the cheese develops a more assertive body.

Bass Lake has a back room with a variety of different cheses stockpiled in what turns out to be a photogenic manner:

It occurred to us recently that we hadn’t posted a photo of what a master cheesemaker’s medal actually looks like. Erickson did an excellent job of displaying his, so here’s a snapshot:

If you’re reading this blog post and you’re within an hour or two of Hudson, WI (about 35 minutes East of St. Paul), check out Bass Lake. They have a running series of wine tastings on alternate Saturdays that sound pretty delightful.

A Brief Technical Note

We’ve conducted (and in large part transcribed) more than 25 straight hours of interviews in order to research this book, and we’ve got another 4-6 to go, at least. This would not have been possible — in the slightest — without our Olympus VN-3100PC Digital Voice Recorder. It’s never failed us, runs for hours without needing new batteries, stores up to 72 hours of sound in however many folders you want, picks up sound in hostile conditions (i.e. pasteurizers), and converts all our interviews into easy-to-use digital files so that we can transcribe from iTunes instead of rewinding and fast-forwarding a physical tape. I have come to love this thing. As far as inanimate objects go, it is my best friend. As a journalist, I’ve used a lot of recorders in the past (eight? ten?) and this is the first one I’d go out of my way to praise.

Northwestern Wisconsin: Stanley and Jim Falls

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. A chunk of it ended up shredded into the delicious, bubbly, golden brown potato quiche that we made for dinner last night.

On this same trip, we met Richard “Whitie” Wold, who presides over the sprawling Jim Falls cheesemaking operation run by Associated Milk Producers, Inc. Wold was as generous a host as we could have hoped for, and he gave us the straight dope on the challenges and rewards of making a quality cheese at a huge (260,000 pounds of cheese a day) volume.

We’ve got a block of AMPI’s jalapeno jack in our fridge that I’m looking forward to trying. Also, a gallon of AMPI chocolate pudding. It was only four bucks!

A Sentimental Thought…

…from the shop at LaGrander’s Hillside Dairy.

It’s Spring in Wisconsin

Taken near Jim Falls, Wisconsin.

Also outstanding / out standing in their field: