The State we were in is known as “America’s Dairyland”. And what do you do with all that milk? You make the worlds most variable and lovely food product: CHEESE. With a little research in that great book “The Cheese Chronicles” we picked out a few dairies that were generally on the way home, centered around a little town called Monroe. Most of them were cited in a chapter called “When Did “Factory” Become a Dirty Word?”. Her point was that a producer of “block” cheeses in large quantities can compete with so called “artisinal” makers. So a lot of what were mentioned were cooperatives (Chalet Cheese Cooperative) and big operations (Roth Käse) a lot of their product sells to stores who then sell them as “their” brand, Whole Foods for instance. So, not sure what we were getting into we headed southeast from La Crosse on back country roads again, encountering stuff you’ll never see on I-Whatever.
A look at the map showed us that we were near the New Glarus Brewery, whose products I have grown to enjoy, as well as their naming of the beers, such as: Spotted Cow, Road Slush Oatmeal Stout, Dancing Man Wheat, and Stone Soup to name a few. Anyhow, we stopped in to their place a pretty large building.
We didn’t tour nor taste, just looked around and got back to our main objective, the cheese. We asked the lady behind the counter about places to get cheese, and she named a couple for us. So, a few miles later we found ourselves in Monroe, a typical quaint country town.
A quick look around the square revealed our first trial, Baumgartner’s
We went inside what was indeed a tavern, but it had a cheese case, mostly full of block cheeses. On the wall were the available selections ;
Indeed, there were no identifiers as to maker, and most were just labeled “Baumgartner’s”. MFO did notice some smoked cheddar attributed to Maple Leaf Farms, so we got a hunk of that along with some of the 3 year aged cheddar with the Baumgartner label.
Our next (and last) stop was to a market called “Brennan’s”
which, according to the brewery lady had “a great selection of cheese”. It was kind of an upscale market with lots of fresh produce, wines, and a whole lot of;
Again, most were under the “Brennan’s" label, although some of the little signs with each variety mentioned the master cheesemaker responsible. We picked up a traditional Gouda and a wedge of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, from the Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, WI. That company was mentioned in the book and specifically this cheese. While the generic cheeses were around $8 per pound, the Pleasant Ridge came in at a whopping $23 per pound, so it better be good.
So our total purchases were 4 varieties (as yet to be tasted)
After the pleasant drive to Monroe, we pretty much let schedule rule, and hit the boring interstates for the long drive to Richmond IA, where we RON’d and then another long day brought us back to “reality”
So the MOMSTER logged another journey of about 2600 miles, we helped with MFO’s Mom, and have some cheese. So now life goes on..always ready to
DFD
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