Cheese Producer Profiles
MARIEKE GOUDA
Marieke Penterman
Thorp, Wisconsin
http://www.hollandsfamilycheese.com/
Marieke Gouda is a true farmstead cheese (cheese made on a farm with milk produced by cows on that farm) created in Thorp Wisconsin by Marieke Penterman and her staff of 12. Marieke immigrated to Wisconsin from the Netherlands in 2003 to assist on her future husband’s dairy farm, and missing the European cheeses she grew up with, pursued her cheesemaker’s license. Her first batch of cheese won a category award at the 2007 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest. Today she creates a line of award-winning goudas with traditional Dutch recipes and techniques using equipment, culture, herbs and spices imported from Holland.
SARTORI CHEESE
The Sartori Family
Antigo, Wisconsin
Sartori is a large third-generation family owned operation based in a former brewery. Its cheeses are created with milk from Wisconsin dairy farms within 60 miles of the Antigo facilities. Sartori has embraced modern mechanization while still retaining many artisan techniques including hand-pressing, hand-trimming and hand-rubbing. Sartori has 3 master cheesemakers who create over 20 varieties of unique original cheeses, including their popular flavored washed-rind cheeses which range from a merlot soaked Bellavitano® aged cheese to a salsa-rubbed Asiago.
CRAVE BROTHER’S CHEESE
Charles, George, Thomas and Mark Crave
Waterloo, Wisconsin
Waterloo, Wisconsin’s Crave Cheese Factory where some of the freshest, best-tasting mozzarella and mascarpone cheese is created with milk from the herd of 1200 Holstein cows on the farm next door. The brothers serve as good stewards of the land in their sustainable farming practice of converting the farm’s manure into enough methane gas to power the farm, cheese factory and 300 area homes through the use of their innovative bio digester power generator.
CARR VALLEY
The Cook family
La Valle, Wisconsin
http://www.carrvalleycheese.com/
Fourth-generation cheesemaker Sid Cook and his team create over 80 delicious award-winning cheeses from Wisconsin cow, sheep and goat milks. Some of our favorite Sid Cook creations are the Apple Smoked Cheddar; a white cheddar that is smoked and then rubbed with paprika and the Cocoa Cardona; a goat-milk cheese rubbed with cocoa powder for a subtle unique flavor combination. Carr Valley cheeses have won 467 national and international awards (and counting!)
UPLANDS CHEESE COMPANY
Mike and Carol Gingrich, Dan and Jeanne Patenaude
Dodgeville, WI
The Gingrichs and Patenaudes make authentic artisan farmstead cheese, which means that on their farm, they graze the cows, milk the cows, make the cheese and age the cheese all on site. Uplands’ Pleasant Ridge Reserve has won the American Cheese Society’s Best of Show three times—unheard of in the cheese world.