David Stluka
Cheese guru Jeanne Carpenter.
If you want to learn more about the artisanal cheeses that have emerged in the market in the last decade, you could read a book or take a class. Or you could go to camp.
Wisconsin Cheese Camp comes to Madison on Saturday, Nov. 4 and Sunday, Nov. 5, offering a dinner, factory tours, authors and a Meet the Cheesemaker tasting event featuring 30 Wisconsin cheesemakers. The Cheese Camp is being organized by Jeanne Carpenter, founder of Wisconsin Cheese Originals. She teaches classes and hosts events to educate people about and celebrate local cheeses, and also writes a blog and hosts a podcast that share the name of “Cheese Underground.”
Isthmus sat down with Carpenter to chat about what is going on in the cheese world these days, particularly in Wisconsin.
Do the cheesemakers get that it’s part of the deal now to stand around and talk about their cheese?
They know it’s good for the artisan industry. The more face time they can get with consumers, the more they’re going to be able to sell cheese that costs $20 a pound. If you meet Chris Roelli (of Roelli Cheese Co. in Shullsburg) at this event, you’re more likely to buy his cheese because you remember talking to him so you think, “Yeah, this is worth it.”
Why is what’s happening with artisanal cheese important to the person who doesn’t know bandaged cheddar from Cheetos?
It’s keeping our smaller dairy farms in business. We’re at a juncture where they feel they have to get big or get out. The price of commodity milk is not keeping up with the price of doing business so if you’re not milking 300 cows, you’re not breaking even.
If you think of all the artisanal cheeses we have, they’re all coming from farms milking 100 or fewer cows. It’s the one way we can keep small dairy farms in business. I tell people, “If you like the scene that you see when you’re driving around, of black and white cows out on the pasture, you better start eating artisan cheese.”
Beermakers seem to be trying to out-funk each other. Is that coming in the cheese world?
It is just arriving. The American trend is to put as many starter cultures in your cheese as possible. It’s called the “culture cocktail” and it’s to make the cheese be as big and bold and sweet as possible. That’s great, to a point. But it’s totally covering up the natural flavors and flora of the milk that make so many of these cheeses special. Like Pleasant Ridge Reserve. What you taste is amazing microflora, a taste of place. Then I taste a cheddar that’s full of Lactobacillus helveticus and it’s yummy, it’s crunchy, it’s sweet and it tastes good but I couldn’t tell you where on Earth it was made.
More info and event tickets at wisconsincheeseoriginals.com/wisconsin-cheese-camp.
