cheeseunderground american cheese society, governor scott walker, larry's market, Wisconsin cheese

Governor Scott Walker Proclaims October as Cheese Month

Finally, we have an important issue that politicians in the State of Wisconsin can agree on. Today (this is breaking news, people), Governor Scott Walker proclaimed October as official “Cheese Month” in the State of Wisconsin. And here’s the certificate to prove it:

The proclamation comes courtesy of the fabulous Patty Peterson at Larry’s Market in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, who in August, wrote the governor’s office, asking him to join the American Cheese Society in declaring October as American Cheese Month. “I think this is a natural fit for Wisconsin with our rich dairy heritage and wonderful new cheese artisans and entrepreneurs,” Patty wrote in her request. You go, girl.

The request was then funneled to Bob Nenno, Proclamation Director (I didn’t know we even had a Proclamation Director), and after consideration from Bob and his supervisor, the Governor approved the designation. This afternoon, his staff sent Patty an email with a copy of the document. The original is set to be mailed next week.

According to Dorothy Moore, Executive Assistant to Governor Scott Walker, the “governor loves cheese.”

So there you have it, folks. October is officially “Cheese Month” in Wisconsin. Party on.

cheeseunderground anna landmark, cheese, goat cheese, Landmark Creamery, road trip, Sarah Pinet, Victory Hill Farm

This One’s for the Girls

This past week has been full of good news from women I love.

First, some of you may recall that three summers ago, I took my daughter on “the last mother/daughter road trip before my daughter starts to hate me because she’s a teenager and I’m her mother.” I’m so glad we took that trip, because as any parent of a teenage girl who looks 21 will know, the past three years have been full of slamming doors, broken curfews, smashed hollyhocks (which had the misfortune to grow directly under the bedroom window of which she routinely snuck out), and of course, boys. And more boys. Did I mention boys?

In good news, my daughter is now almost 17, has settled down a bit, and seems to be past most of the rocky spots, except when it comes to driving fast and furious (she’s one ticket away from having mom as chauffeur) and I’m hoping (fingers crossed) we’re on the road to a really good relationship. In fact, when I mentioned this might be the last mother/daughter adventure we take because she’ll soon be going to college, she informed me she would never be too busy to take a road trip with her mama. I’m taking that as a very good sign (again, fingers crossed).

Landmark Creamery Nuage Noir.
Photo by Anna Thomas Bates

The second good bit of girly news comes from Anna Landmark, who this past week quit her day job and launched Landmark Creamery (woot woot)! Anna’s been working to attain a cheesemaker license since earning the 2012 Wisconsin Cheese Originals Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship.

She”s now making her sheep’s milk cheeses at Cedar Grove Cheese full-time and has reached the stage where she’s ready to start getting her cheese into the retail arena. She’s even taking orders from individuals through her website, www.landmarkcreamery.com. At the moment, she’s only selling in the Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago areas, but will hopefully be able to ship nationwide by next March.

Congratulations, Anna! You go, girl.

Sarah Pinet with her teenage doelings.

The third bit of girly good news comes from Sarah Pinet in western Nebraska. When Sarah found out her favorite mother/daughter duo were staying in a cabin a mere three hours north of her farm, feeding the “wild” burros in Custer State Park, she messaged me and invited us for a visit.

So we trekked down to the picturesque Victory Hill Farm and hung with Sarah, her husband, Lee, their three children, 39 milking goats, 12 doelings, two sows, one boar, three piglets, two calves, two horses, one pony, two dogs, four cats, numerous chickens and two kittens that I had to persuade my daughter not hide in the backseat and take home with us.

Meadowlark Reserve

Sarah is making a whole line of goat’s milk cheeses, including fresh and flavored chevres, feta, a 6-month cheddar she calls Meadowlark, Beer Cheddar (washed in Fat Tire), a gouda named Goldenrod, and my favorite, a 2-year gouda named Meadowlark Reserve.

We got the full tour of the milking parlor she designed based on Anne Topham’s set-up, the creamery, based on Diana Murphy’s make-room (see a pattern of Wisconsin-inspired cheesemaking here?) and the barnyard, complete with three giant pigs which promptly climbed out of the mud pit, shook every bone in their body, and completely splattered Avery and me with dark oozy gooey chunks. With a look of horror on her face, Sarah immediately started apologizing and shepherding us into the house to clean up, to which my daughter proclaimed: “That was awesome!” Ahh, that’s my girl.

The offending pig.

So all in all, I’d say it was a pretty good week for us girls. A road trip with my daughter, a week away from my desk, and a cooler full of cheese to put in the fridge when we got home. Win-win!

cheeseunderground Wisconsin cheese, Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival

Coming in November: The Arrival of American Artisan Cheese

In honor of the upcoming Fifth Annual Wisconsin Cheese Originals Festival, I partnered with Leah Caplan and the creative folks at Cricket Design Works in Madison to come up with an official poster for “The Arrival of American Artisan Cheese.” Whatcha think?

Tickets to the festival go on sale to members of Wisconsin Cheese Originals on Monday, Sept. 9, with remaining tickets available to the public on Sept. 16. And in exciting news, now that ACS is over, I’ve had a chance to update the festival website with all of this year’s information on tours, seminars, dinner and the Meet the Cheesemaker Gala.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1

TOURS, TOURS, TOURS!
Choose one of three private all-day tours for a backstage pass to America’s Dairyland. Tour a cheese plant, walk a dairy barn and taste award-winning Wisconsin artisan cheese all day long. These customized, small-group tours depart Madison at 7:45 a.m. and return to Madison by 5 p.m. Each tour is limited to just 20 people, allowing attendees to experience places most people never see, with time for personal conversations with cheesemakers. Your choices: 

  • Tour A: Classic Wisconsin Cheesemaker Tour
  • Tour B: Exploring the Farmstead Sheep & Goat Dairies of Wisconsin
  • Tour C: From Oldest to Newest: The Best of Wisconsin Dairy

Read the descriptions of each tour here.

FRIDAY NIGHT MEET THE CHEESEMAKER GALA
The signature event of the festival! This popular event takes place inside the elegant ballroom at Monona Terrace. You’ll shake hands and talk shop with more than 40 Wisconsin cheesemakers and local food artisans, sample more than 200 original cheeses and artisan foods, enjoy butlered appetizers with your favorite wine or microbrew, and tap your toes to Point Five, an Americana acoustic band featuring Uplands Cheesemaker Andy Hatch. Afterward, purchase your favorites at the Metcalfe’s Marketplace booth and take home a piece of Wisconsin.

Click here to learn which of your favorite cheesemakers and food artisans will be there!

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2

 

SATURDAY SEMINARS & TASTINGS
Join us for a full day of tasting and talking about American artisan cheese. Purchase an all-day pass and attend the morning keynote by author Laura Werlin, and elegant lunch with cheese & chocolate dessert pairing in the Grand Terrace, and two afternoon seminars, including one pairing session with either beer or brandy.

Read about all the Saturday sessions here.

SATURDAY NIGHT CHEESEMAKER DINNERS
Experience a culinary sensation at one of three Madison restaurants, where each chef partners with two Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers and hosts an amazing three-course meal featuring Wisconsin artisan cheese. Attendees join the featured Cheesemakers in a private room for dinner. Each dinner is limited to 30 guests.

Click here to learn which restaurants and cheesemakers are pairing up this year.

I hope you’ll join me in November to celebrate the Arrival of American Artisan Cheese. I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the festival!

cheeseunderground american cheese society, bleu mont dairy, cesar luis, cheese, dreamfarm, martha's pimento cheese, nordic creamery, sara hill, Savory Spoon, willi lehner, Wisconsin cheese

On Location: ACS in Madison

Well it’s official: the 30th American Cheese Society annual conference and competition is now on the books as one of the biggest (and do I daresay best?) cheesy shindigs in the history of cheese nerd conventions. Ever.

With nearly 1,000 cheese geeks from across North America descending upon Madison, Wisconsin this past week to talk, eat and sell cheese, most everyone is now on their way home or has made it to their final destination with their bellies full of cheese and their briefcases full of business cards. And let me just say that after spending the past 15 months planning 32 seminars, 5 tours, numerous special events and a grand Festival of Cheese featuring nearly 1,800 different cheeses for the tasting, co-chairs Bob Wills, Sara Hill and I are ready for a nap.

But before I nod off, let’s share a few photo highlights of the week.

Here’s my cheese-sister-in-crime Sara Hill after being inducted into the prestigous Guilde Internationale Des Fromagers. Check out the website – it’s in French – so you know it’s important. Sara has worked 30 years in the cheese industry and deserves this honor. Congrats, Sara!

Next, let me be the first person to tell every retailer in the nation that you need to carry the new Savory Spoon Panforte, which debuted at Saturday night’s Festival of Cheese. Featuring locally sourced cherries and honey, along with the traditional nuts which made this 15th Century Italian dessert famous, the Door County, Wisconsin version crafted by Janice Thomas can be cut to order or sold in small, gift wooden boxes sourced from France. Two words: super yummy. Contact eatpanforte@savoryspoon.com to order.

Willi Lehner and his Third Place Best in Show Bandaged Cheddar and Big Sky Grana (for the first time ever, the same cheesemaker tied himself for a Best in Show ribbon) – may have (rightfully) stolen the show …

But probably the happiest cheesemaker to win a ribbon may have been Martha Davis Kipcak maker of Martha’s Pimento Cheese. When Martha’s Pimento Cheese with Jalapenos was announced as the second place winner in the Cold Pack Cheese and Spreads with Flavor Added category, she almost couldn’t stand up in shock. But you should have seen her face when the announcer proclaimed she had also taken FIRST in the category with her original Martha’s Pimento Cheese. For someone who’s been in the food industry for 15 years, but only making cheese for less than a year, this is a well-deserved honor. Congratulations, Martha!

Before the conference proper started, ACS goers had their pick of five different tours featuring Wisconsin dairy farms and creameries. I had a blast planning and leading the Driftless Tour of Wisconsin Sheep and Goat Dairies, visiting Dreamfarm in Cross Plains, Hidden Springs Creamery in Westby, and Nordic Creamery in Westby. With a local-foods lunch catered right on the farm and a perfect blue sky, this particular tour showcased the best of Wisconsin.

Thanks to Sarah Bekkum for leading the tour at Nordic Creamery!

Thanks to Brenda Jensen (first in line!) for leading us through her amazingly beautiful dairy sheep farm and creamery.

And thanks to Diana Murphy for showing us her goat farm and creamery!

Of course, there were the seminars. This being Wisconsin, we wanted to plan some not-so-usual tasting sessions, so we brought in experts from the University of Wisconsin to lead a fluid milk tasting …

… and the first-ever cheese curd tasting session!

Of course there were also more traditional seminars, such as a 90-minute educational session on the flavor profiles of Comte.

My favorite event is always the Meet the Cheesemaker, where this year, 70 cheesemakers from across the nation and Canada lined up their wares for show and tell. Of course some cheesemakers, such as Cesar and Heydi Luis are more photogenic than others. Say cheese!

The weather could not have been more perfect to welcome members of the University of Wisconsin marching band to the Monona Terrace rooftop, where the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board threw the mother of all opening conference parties, complete with a toe-tapping band, picnic-style food, mounds o’cheese and of course, free beer. This is Wisconsin, after all.

The conference proper wrapped up Saturday night with the annual Festival of Cheese, where Best in Show winner Winnimere from Jasper Hill Farm was featured (thanks to Mateo for having three cases overnighted to the festival so everyone could have a taste)!

And where tables of blue cheese …

And smoked cheese …

 
And, well, every kind of cheese filled a room to hold 1,200 attendees.
Many, many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers, ACS staff, cheesemakers and all attendees for helping make the 30th ACS so memorable. See you next year in Sacramento, California, July 29 – August 1.

cheeseunderground american cheese society, fromagination, Wisconsin cheese

ACS Folks: Here Are 5 Ways to Become a Wisconsite

Hey there ACS fans and friends! I know you’re traveling to Madison for the American Cheese Society this week, and you might be worrying about how to fit into our cosmopolitan world class city. Here’s my first word of advice: leave the stilettos at home and pack your Birkenstocks. Then follow these five suggestions to become a true member of America’s Dairyland.

1. Eat deep fried cheese curds until you’re sick
Just like Friday fish fries, Jell-O salads, and beer brats, deep-fried cheese curds are uniquely Wisconsin. In downtown Madison, dozens of restaurants offer deep-fried curds as an appetizer or side, and some are even transforming the once lowly fair-food into a top-shelf item. Around the Square, check out the deep fried beauties at The Old Fashioned, Tipsy Cow or Graze. For best results, pair with a local craft beer, because it’s always best to mix hot oil and cheese with a little fermented yeast.

2. Drink beer with a cheesemaker
Madison is home to a thriving craft beer culture, with a half dozen brewpubs located within a couple blocks of the Square. On July 31, buy a $10 Pub Crawl ticket at the ACS Registration desk and buy a pint to drink with one of 18 different Wisconsin cheesemakers hanging out at six different downtown taverns. Visit them all, and you can enter to win a free ACS Registration for next year.

3. Get your shop on down State Street
Madison is a university town, and in the fall, winter and spring, State Street – a pedestrian-only, six-block shopping boulevard – is crowded with students. In good news, it’s summer, so you’ll have it to yourself. Full of eclectic shops and restaurants, State Street is THE place to see and be seen in Madison. Walk to the end and enjoy an ice cream cone at the UW-Madison Union, and sit on the pier while watching sailboats cruise Lake Mendota.

4. Eat a picnic on the Capital lawn
During the lunch hour and extending well into the afternoon, the four sides of the state capital lawn transform into the city’s unofficial picnic spot for downtown workers and visitors. Grab a sandwich and cheese plate from Fromagination, walk across the street, and people watch as you enjoy a cheesy snack. Warning: the lawn is famous for its influx (some might say infestation) of squirrels, so guard that sandwich accordingly.

5. Explore the Capital City Path via B Cycle
A paved bike/walking path starts downtown and rings Lake Monona, enticing many a visitor to hop on a rented bicycle or hoof it around the lake. Buy a B-Cycle pass for just $3 – a special discount for conference attendees from the normal $5 rate (there are two stations on West Wilson, on either side of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, just one block up from the Monona Terrace) – and explore the Capital City Path for an afternoon on wheels. Find information about public restroom stops and drinking fountains at Bike Madison. Be sure and stop to feed the ducks your leftover sandwich on Lake Monona or enjoy the sunset in Olin Park. Pedal back before dark to enjoy the view of the Capital lit up at night.

Of course, it goes without saying that I’ll see you all on Saturday at the Dane County Farmer’s Market, which surrounds the Capital Square, and is the largest producer-only farmer’s market in the nation. See you there!

cheeseunderground american cheese society, fromagination, Metcalfe's Market

Your One Stop Shop for ACS Public Cheesemaker Events

With the American Cheese Society Conference and Competition in town all week at the Monona Terrace, it’s sheer cheese madness in Madison. This week will be one of the only times you’ll ever see hundreds of cheesemakers all in the same place at the same time, and many are doing special events around the state.

So, while the conference itself is aimed primarily towards cheese professionals and serious cheese enthusiasts, here’s a round-up of cheesy events where you can still meet your favorite cheesemaker and taste their cheeses.

MONDAY, JULY 29

Book Signing and Cheese Tasting with Author Janet Fletcher
Time: 6 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

————

TUESDAY, JULY 30

Sartori Cheese Tasting
Time: Noon – 4 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

Alemar Cheese Tasting with Minnesota Cheesemaker Keith Adams
Time: 5-7 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

————

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31

Sugar Brook Cheese Tasting
Time: 1-3 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

Sartori Cheese Tasting
Time: 2:30-5:30 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free 

Green Dirt Farm Cheese Tasting with Missouri Cheesemaker Jacqueline Smith
Time: 3-6 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free

Holland Family Farms Cheese Tasting
Time: 5-7 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

Avalanche Cheese Company Cheese Tasting with Colorado Cheesemaker Wendy Mitchell
Time: 5-7 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery Tasting with Vermont Cheesemaker Joey Connor
Time: 5-7 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free

ACS Meet Madison, Hosted by Underground Food Collective
Time: 5:30 – 8pm
Location: James Madison Park, 614 East Gorham Street, Madison
Cost: $20 per person, a fundraiser for the Daphne Zepos Teaching Award, purchase at meetmadisonandthedzta.eventbrite.com

Brazos Valley Farm Cheese Tasting with Texas Cheesemaker Marc Kuehl
Time: 6-7 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

 ————

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1

Roelli Cheese Tasting with Wisconsin Cheesemaker Chris Roelli
Time: 1 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

Avalanche Cheese Company Cheese Tasting with Colorado Cheesemaker Wendy Mitchell
Time: 4-6 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

Alemar Cheese Tasting with Minnesota Cheesemaker Keith Adams
Time: 4-6 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free

Summer of Riesling Crawl
Time: 6:15 – 9 pm
Location: Fromagination, Fresco & Square Wine Company
Cost: $35 per person, purchase ticket at frescomadison.com/rieslingcrawl

———-

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3

Holland’s Family Cheese Tasting
Time: 11 am – 2 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free

Beehive Cheese Tasting with Utah Co-Founder Jeanette Ford
Time: 11am – 3 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free

Martha’s Pimento Cheese Tasting with Wisconsin Cheesemaker Martha Davis Kipcak
Time: Noon – 2 pm
Location: Metcalfe’s Market, 726 N. Midvale Blvd., Madison
Cost: Free

Specialty Foods Tasting with Treats Bake Shop, Smoking Goose Meat, Quince & Apple, Lala’s Nuts
Time: 11 am – 2 pm
Location: Fromagination, 12 S. Carroll St., Madison
Cost: Free

American Cheese Society Festival of Cheese – Taste 1,700 Cheeses!
Time: 7 – 9:30 pm
Location: Exhibition Hall, Monona Terrace, One John Nolan Drive, Madison WI
Cost: $55 per person, purchase at www.cheesesociety.org

————-

SUNDAY, AUGUST 4

American Cheese Society Cheese Sale
Time: 11 am – 2 pm
Location: Grand Terrace, Monona Terrace, One John Nolan Drive, Madison
Cost: Free, but bring cash to buy cheeses from the conference

Cheese Tasting and Reading from Cheesemonger, A Life on the Wedge, with author Gordon Edgar, America’s Coolest Cheesemonger
Time: Noon
Location: Glorioso’s Italian Market, 1011 East Brady St., Milwaukee
Cost: $35 per person, register at www.gloriosos.com

Looking forward to seeing all of my cheese friends this week in Madison! Let me know if you know of other events, and I’ll add them to this list.

cheeseunderground american cheese society, cheese geek, festival of cheese. volunteer

Cheese Geek Volunteers Unite: ACS Is Coming to Town!

Cheese geeks unite: the American Cheese Society is coming to town, and we need your help!

On July 31 – August 4, more than 900 cheese nerds from around the world will gather in Madison, Wisconsin for the 30th annual American Cheese Society annual conference and cheese competition. While the event is open to the public, you must be an ACS member and pay fairly hefty fees to attend. That’s why it’s mostly a trade-oriented event.

So here’s where you come in … on Saturday, Aug. 3, the signature event of the conference takes place: behold The Festival of Cheese. That’s when all – and we mean all – cheeses entered into competition are cut and sampled to an adoring crowd. Yes, that means more than 1,700 cheeses are in one room at one time. It’s a cheese coma in the making.

Tickets to the Festival of Cheese are $55 each, but you can attend for FREE, simply by volunteering for a shift during the conference or judging competition. In addition to a Festival of Cheese pass, you also get the awesome conference “Cheese Geek” t-shirt pictured above and a meal during your shift.

Most of all, you get to hang out with cheese nerds for eight hours and glean as much cheese information as your mind will absorb. There are a variety of volunteer opportunities available: you can help cut and plate cheeses, help unload and sort trucks o’ cheese, help prep tables for the Saturday Festival and more. It’s your choice. Sign up here to volunteer online.

ACS Conference co-chairs Sara Hill, Bob Wills and I can’t wait to welcome you to ACS this year and hope you’ll consider volunteering. We look forward to seeing you there!

cheeseunderground milk, sassy cow creamery, Wisconsin dairy

Sassy Cow Success

Sassy Cow Creamery, the little creamery that could, celebrates its five-year anniversary this month of producing on-farm bottled milk and old-fashioned ice cream for a growing consumer base demanding  not only to know where their food comes from, but also the first name of their farmer.

In this case, those first names are James and Robert, third generation dairy farmers who own two dairy farms, and in 2008, built a farmstead creamery in the middle. The Baerwolf brothers, along with their wives (both named Jenny), their growing number of children, and the amazing Sassy Cow sales/marketing guru Kara Kasten-Olson, a former farm girl herself, are a team that freely admits they had no idea what they were doing when they started.

Until Kasten-Olson and the Baerwolfs came knocking on the doors of Wisconsin grocery stores five years ago with gallons and half gallons of both organic and traditional milk, only the big boys like Dean and Golden Guernsey had a presence in the retail milk cooler. Kasten-Olson and the Baerwolfs worked beyond overtime the first couple of years to fight a milk mafia uninterested in a local farmer just to get their product placed alongside the conventional commodity jugs of milk.

Metcalfe’s Market at Hilldale Shopping Center was the first grocery store in Madison to carry Sassy Cow products. In an interview with today’s Wisconsin State Journal, Store Director Jim Meier says Sassy Cow organic milk is now tied with Organic Valley for the top-selling organic milk at Metcalfe’s, and Sassy’s traditional milk is second only behind Metcalfe’s private label.

“We see customers put other products down and pick this one up because it’s right down the road. People are willing to spend a bit extra to support the local economy,” Meier said.

Today, Sassy Cow milk is not only alongside the “big boys” of fluid milk in the dairy aisle, it often takes center stage. With their collectible “cow cards” – Darlene’s been on my fridge for years, after my daughter selected the gallon because she thought the cow’s personality description sounded like her mom – the Baerwolfs do an exceptional job of not only telling their farm story, but connecting the consumer to their farm.

Five years ago, when Sassy Cow Creamery celebrated its grand opening, it did so with lots of formal speeches from a variety of state and local officials, including Alice in Dairyland. The above photo was taken that day in front of a crowd of about 100 people. The same people in that photo are the same people running Sassy Cow Creamery today. You can meet them this Saturday at an Anniversary Open House from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., complete with tours, games, product samples and wagon rides.

Sassy Cow Creamery is located at W4192 Bristol Rd., Columbus, Wis. From Hwy 151, take the Bristol Rd. (Hwy N) Exit. Head North on Hwy N and travel seven miles. Look for the big red barn on your left, and be sure to say hello to Robert, James, the Jennys, Kara and the crew. Congratulate them for a job well done.

cheeseunderground darlington dairy supply, Wisconsin cheese

Thuli Family Creamery

One of the brother-owners of Darlington Dairy Supply, a company well known for providing the Wisconsin dairy industry with innovative, stainless steel processing equipment, is going into the dairy processing industry himself.

Ted Thuli and his wife, Angie, are about ready to open the doors of Thuli Family Creamery on the site of the old Ann Street garage in downtown Darlington. The creamery on wheels – one of Darlington Dairy Supply’s claims to fame – has been customized to use solar power and craft an array of innovative dairy products, including:

1. Swiss Style Yogurt — milk will be non-homogenized with 2 percent and whole milk versions. Smooth and naturally sweet.

2. Cream-line milk — in white plastic 1/2 gallons.

3. Gelato — the real deal, using pasteruized egg yolks instead of chemical stabilizers for smooth and thick consistency.

4. Drinkable Yogurt — with three ingredients: milk, fruit and stevia.

While Ted designed the equipment and developed the recipes, Angie will be the primary operator and day-to-day manager of Thuli Family Creamery. After 28 years in the banking industry, she’s “retiring” to work at the bank two days a week and will spend another two or three days a week crafting dairy products to sell in the creamery’s on-site small retail store. Sons Blake, 27 and Kyle, 25, are also involved, helping their parents build the creamery and get it up and running.

“Of course what I’d really like to do is make Swiss cheese,” Ted says with a grin. Both his grandfather and father were Swiss cheesemakers, and Ted is a Wisconsin licensed cheesemaker himself. “But this is the way to go right now. We’re going to fill a product niche and see what we can do.”

Already, the family’s dairy logo is drawing second looks and smiles. The whimsical cow wearing a bell with a Swiss flag represents the family’s heritage. Angie says they’ll have a future contest to name her.

Of course with Ted Thuli – featured in 2010 on the hit History Channel show, American Pickers, nothing is ever done in a routine manner. Visitors will notice a giant shark head greeting them as they approach the creamery – the same shark head that was used at the 1974 premiere party of the movie “Jaws”. Its missing front tooth will be filled with foam cheese. The creamery boasts an attractive wooden viewing deck for visitors, and the Thulis imagine school children and groups will visit often.

The family creamery marks a dream come true for Ted, who has traveled the world working at Darlington Dairy Supply with his mother and two brothers. The company was founded by his father in 1958, and since then, Ted has built cheese plants in China, Ecuador, Caribbean Islands, Mexico and all over the United States.

“It’s pretty neat to do this in my own hometown,” Ted says. “I think it will be good for downtown Darlington, and it will be good for us. Win-win.” Congrats to the Thulis!

cheeseunderground Cathy Potter, Dairy Connection, Dave Potter, supplies, Wisconsin cheese

GetCulture Inc. Opens in Madison

If you’re an at-home or beginning cheesemaker, I have excellent news to share. Madison’s long-time cheese culture supplier, Dairy Connection, is opening a retail store today on the east side and will sell small amounts of rennet, cultures, cheese forms and all cheesemaking supplies to the public.

Located at 501 Tasman Street in Madison, GetCulture Inc. is connected to the main Dairy Connection building. It’s a cute little shop with lots of awesome stuff for cheese geeks. Dozens of small, hard-to-find plastic cheese forms line one wall, along with stainless steel pots and pans, cheese cloths, and a whole cooler full of microbial, vegetarian and veal rennet. A nice supply of cultures – including those for yogurt, kefir and most any kind of cheese, are also available in small, easy-to-use and experiment-friendly sizes. It’s like the dream shopping experience for a hobby or beginning cheesemaker.

The grand opening is today and tomorrow, May 31 & June 1, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Lots of door prizes – including two tickets to the August 3 American Cheese Society Festival of Cheese in Madison – are up for grabs. You’ll also get to meet store co-managers, Katie Potter and Valerie Tobias, both experts in cheesemaking supplies.

If you can’t make it to the open house, no worries! GetCulture Inc also has a website at www.getculture.com, where they sell everything online. Lipase? Check. Coagulants and rennet? Check. Fermented cheese cultures? Check.

“We’re excited and a little nervous to see how the new store does,” Valerie says. “We’re off the beaten path, but people have already been finding us, plus we have an online store, so customers should find everything they need.”

The GetCulture Inc store is a long-planned offshoot of Madison’s renowned Dairy Connection, launched in 1999 by Dave and Cathy Potter. For nearly 15 years, the business has supplied ingredients to some of America’s best-known cheesemakers, specializing in serving artisan and specialty cheese companies.

In fact, more than two-thirds of all awards handed out to American cheesemakers at the 2011 American Cheese Society annual competition went to companies that count on Dairy Connection for their supplies. That’s a pretty good track record!

Congratulations to everyone at Dairy Connection on your new venture. I know I’m happy to have a great place to recommend supplies for small and beginning cheesemakers.