Ukrop's associates taste some of Roth Käse's innovative cheeses with president Stephen McKeon.

It’s been a chock-full day here in Wisconsin and we’re all exhausted, so today’s description will be brief. We’ll come back with more information about some of these wonderful cheese makers later. Today, the itinerary included three cheese makers, all of which were in Green County: Chalet Cheese Co-Op, Klondike Cheese Company and Roth Käse.

First stop was Chalet Cheese Co-Op, the only producer of Limburger cheese in the United States. One of the cool things about Chalet is that it’s a co-op, meaning that the milk for the cheese comes from 22 area farms. “There’s a lot of pride that goes into what we do here,” says Myron Olson, a master cheese maker and only the third manager of Chalet in the last 70 years. “We’re not the biggest [cheese maker], but what we try to do is make the best products.” Several varieties of baby Swiss and regular Swiss cheese are made at Chalet, but the infamous labor-intense Limburger draws much attention. Once it’s shaped, the Limburger cheese must be hand-washed with salt and a special bacteria that gives the cheese its unique, pungent flavor. It’s hand-flipped and kept in a special humid room for a week to allow the bacteria time to grow. It’s then packaged and sold. Chalet’s Limburger is sold across the United States. Our next stop was Klondike Cheese Company, a producer of Muenster, Havarti and feta cheese. This fourth-generation cheese company produces 80,000 pounds of feta per day and sold 25 million pounds of feta last year. Klondike’s feta is made on a custom-built German coagulator that automates part of the process to standardize production and save time. Because feta is a large curd cheese, it’s extra delicate and must be handled with care. Luke Buholzer, vice president of cheese sales, explained that if the curd breaks, the cheese quality goes down. Careful attention to every step of the process ensures a high-quality product.

Our last stop of the day was Roth Käse, one of the area’s most varied cheese producers. Roth Käse produces about 35 varieties of cheese, 25 of which are produced in the company’s factory. The company hires other local cheese makers to produce their original recipes for the other 10. General manager Jim Natzke explained that this process allows Roth Käse to expand production and to give extra business to other local cheese producers.

This company is focused on using the latest technology to ensure the quality of its products. The milk for Roth Käse cheese, which comes from about 80 local farmers, is tested daily because the content varies by the time of year. Once it’s tested, the cheese recipes are altered daily to adjust to the milk to ensure the final product is as consistent as possible. Natzke also notes that because the Roth Käse cheeses are all aged from a few weeks up to a few months, every lot can be sampled and tested in the lab before it’s shipped to customers, which decreases the chances of product problems or recalls. Along with its traditional products like Gruyere and Fontina, the cheese makers at Roth Käse devote plenty of time to development: “We always have 20-to-30 ideas in the hopper and we bring two to three to market each year,” Natzke says. Some of Roth Käse’s innovations include GranQueso, a cow’s milk cheese that is similar to Manchego and Moody Blue, a smoked blue cheese.

Tomorrow we’ve got another full day of cheese tasting before we head back to Richmond. Make sure to check our Facebook page again for great photos from today’s visits.