Party hearty with alphorns.
Some parties never get old.
As Green County Cheese Days heads into its second century, it is clear that a good party is best kept simple.
“Cheese and beer make people happy,” says Noreen Rueckert, coordinator of Cheese Days. “You throw in some yodeling and alphorns and you’ve got a festival.”
But it’s a party that differs from the state’s many other community festivals. For one, it is intensely focused on food. It has a century of tradition behind it. It is prepared for like D-Day. This isn’t Verona’s Hometown Days with lederhosen; it’s a tradition that cuts to the core of a county.
The festival’s signature fried cheese curds.
While other communities might throw a beer or cheese festival because it seems like fun, those products drive the economy in Green County. It’s home to a dozen creameries making more than 50 varieties of cheese, including the World Championship Cheese Contest-winning Grand Cru Surchoix by Monroe’s Emmi Roth USA, 180-pound wheels of Emmentaler made by Edelweiss Creamery in Monroe and the infamous Limburger made by Monroe’s Chalet Cheese Company.
Throw in beer from New Glarus Brewing and Minhas Craft Brewery, and the festival, which runs this year Sept. 16-18, definitely has a local flavor.
Not every town can capitalize on culinary tourism the way Monroe can, says Rueckert. “Cheese and beer is our thing. We own that. If [your town] just has a couple chain restaurants or something, maybe you should stick with biking.”
Cheese Days began in 1914 when some Monroe businessmen attended Sauerkraut Days in Forreston, Illinois, and thought maybe they could come up with a cheesier option. A crowd estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 showed up for the first party in Monroe, where firefighters and other volunteers whipped up 13,000 cheese sandwiches in the garage of what is now the Minhas brewery.
Over the years, variety has added to the fun — Swiss wrestling, accordions, yodelers, parades, fun runs, skydivers, a theme song and a mascot named Wedgie. And way more cheese.
A Saturday cheese event will feature the award-winning Grand Cru Surchoix. There will be sampling, as well as beer tastings, wine and cheese pairings, cheese and chocolate pairings, and other food-related activities.
The biannual celebration pulled out all the stops for its 100th anniversary in 2014, and drew about 100,000 people (an estimate based on beer sales). The attendance keeps growing, thanks to the food frenzy that now spreads via social media.
“It’s amazing where people come from,” Rueckert says. “Some have a connection to Monroe through their family; other people are kind of random and will say, ‘Oh, I’m here from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I heard about this.’”
Many head straight to the long lines for the festival’s signature fried cheese curds. The curds are the one big community fundraiser for the event, with 270 volunteers from the Monroe Optimist clubs breading and frying 7,000 pounds of curds from nearby Maple Leaf Cheese and turning them into 25,000 orders that sell for $5 each.
“We tell people, get a beer, find a friend, and get in line,” Rueckert says. “It’s absolutely crazy, but it is the hottest ticket in town.”
