By Joe Kastner- Minneapolis Monger
I love Wisconsin cheese. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up there, but I think my home state has some of the best cheeses out there. When most people think of a classic Wisconsin cheese, they think of a big sharp Cheddar, or some fresh squeaky curds, or even Butterkäse or Brick or other dairy co-op favorites, but not so much soft-rinded goat’s cheeses. But that’s just what we’re focusing on this week, some amazing farmstead goat’s cheeses made in classic French styles right off the western shore of Lake Michigan.
Blakesville Creamery is a great example of passionate people bringing an idea to life in the face of challenging odds. In 2012, the land where the creamery currently sits- just north of Port Washington, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee- was a dairy farm, but with 300 cows. The farmer was looking to sell and retire, but didn’t want to see his land bought by a corporation and turned into condos or a shopping center. He approached his neighbor, Lynde Uihlein, with an offer to buy his farm and conglomerate it with her own. Lynde, who was involved with land preservation and restoration in the area, accepted the offer and took over the dairy, with the goal of switching the entire herd to goats and then making cheese with their milk. At the time this must have seemed like a massively daunting task, but SPOILER ALERT, she made it work!
After 8 years of selling cows to buy goats, changing the farm to fit the new herd, and building cheese-making facilities, Lynde and her team were finally ready to “curd” it up. She brought on veteran cheesemaker Veronica Pedraza to develop the recipes and oversee the production. Then in early 2020, just as the cheeses were getting ready to roll out, COVID happened. Not only did this push back the opening of the creamery due to licensing issues, it also took away a large portion of planned sales to restaurants and other vendors that were struggling at the time. Despite these hurdles, Blakesville released their first cheeses in July 2020 and they’ve been some of our more popular soft cheeses at the shop. If this teaches you anything about cheese people, it’s that we’re willing to wait for a good thing.
At France 44, we sell most of the selections that Blakesville has developed in their short time. Four of them are soft-ripened, smaller format options in easy-to-manage 5 oz. packages, perfect for Lake Effect is the cheese that we’ve carried most frequently. It’s a bloomy-rind cheese that’s ripened with the same molds you’ll find on most Camemberts, giving it that classic mushroomy, earthy flavor. The Lake Breeze, on the other hand, is ripened with Geotrichum cultures and B linens, commonly found on washed-rind cheeses. Though the Breeze isn’t washed itself, it has a bit of the funk associated with those types of cheese. Afterglow, my personal favorite of the bunch, is actually a washed-rind style, bathed in New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red, an ale made from cherries from Door County. Cheese washed in beer with Door County cherries. If that just doesn’t scream Wisconsin, I don’t know what does.
We also carry their ash-lined creation, Linedeline. Layering cheese with vegetable ash is an old practice used to protect the milk from bugs between milking sessions, particularly with goats because their yield is less. But it also just looks really cool on a cheeseboard. This cheese is nice and firm and sliceable while young, but as it ages it just becomes creamy and spreadable and even more decadent. The hard cheese option from Blakesville is called St. Germain, a very firm tomme-style with a wild rind with lots of cool growth. This cheese smells woodsy and piney, and has a lingering herbaceousness that keeps me snacking on it.
Farmstead cheeses like these are awesome to see, especially such newer, up-and-coming operations like Blakesville. The art and science of creating cheese with milk from your own herd of animals is a beautifully sustainable way to honor the land that we call our home, while providing a crucial service to your community and neighbors like us. By buying this cheese, you’re helping support small, sustainable farming and cheese-making, while also enjoying some of the best that Wisconsin has to offer! Cheers!