Latest / Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest / Stream of Consciousness #54 - Joey Widmer - Widmer's Cheese Cellar

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Stream of Consciousness #54 - Joey Widmer - Widmer's Cheese Cellar · Stream of Consciousness with Dan: Stories from the Midwest

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Alright, everybody.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: We are live with Stream of Consciousness with Dan.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Today I get to talk to someone whose work is woven into the story of Wisconsin in a way very few things are.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Widmer's Cheese Cellars has been a part of the state's identity for over a century.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: And the person carrying that legacy forward today is a fourth generation cheesemaker, Joey Whidmer.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: If you grew up anywhere near Wisconsin, you know the Widmer name.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: You've probably had their brick cheese at a family gathering, a supper club, or just straight off the cutting board.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: And what I love about this conversation is it's not just going to be about cheese.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's about heritage, craftsmanship, and what it means to inherit something that's bigger than you.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Joey Man, thanks so much for being here.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to dig into your story.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing today?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing awesome.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'd be doing better if I had a plate of Widmer's cheese on my on my desk, but uh I'm doing Rizzy West.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for asking.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I just so happen to have a fresh big of uh cheddar cheese curds that were taken out of the vat about an hour and a half ago next to me.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, thanks for rubbing that in.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: We're off to a great start.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, your cheese curds are so good.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so yeah, so like we kind of talked about before we started recording, you actually grew up living above the cheese factory there in Teresa, Wisconsin.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, did you always know that you would, you know, carry on the family legacy, or did you have any other aspirations, or was it always just I'm just gonna carry this legacy on?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't always know that I was going to uh carry on the legacy.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um I had interests um including the outdoors and um just being outside in the outdoors and stuff like that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I I had explored opportunities.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: But the uh the cheese this is an option.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be an option, but it definitely is an opportunity um to carry on the family-to-family legacy.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um my my parents never made me feel like a of me because um it's not something that you want to force, it's something that you uh want to naturally come back to.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, then I think I think if you if you want to do something, it it'll show up in your work.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas if you're if you're forced to do something, um you know it it's not gonna show up positively.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, absolutely.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I I I sincerely apologize, but you cut out for like 20 seconds in there.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I probably said something really important, though.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so could you just answer that question one more time?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll I'll just I can cut all that out, so no big deal.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, so I just wanted to ask, um, you know, your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather are all you know, cheesemakers, you're living above the factory.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just talk about was that always something you wanted to continue, or did you have other aspirations?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I didn't always uh I didn't know right away if if I wanted to take over the uh the cheese factory or not.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was always an an option.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um my parents never made me feel like I like I had to take it over.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in fact, they were very supportive of me trying other things um and getting experience elsewhere before I made my uh final decision.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I I really appreciate that that opportunity.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: So no, absolutely, and it's just uh I kind of wanted to ask a silly question because you know, like I'll go to the fridge and get some cheese, but like you walk downstairs and you can get the freshest cheese in the world.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just I'm super jealous of that because I honestly think, and I'm not just saying this because I'm interviewing you, Widmer's cheese is arguably the best cheese that I've ever tasted in my life.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, well, thank you.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate that very much.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um we we definitely take pride in in making the the best possible cheese uh in high high quality, highest quality.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so I guess where does that pride come from?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: I know your great-grandfather immigrated from I believe it was Switzerland, if I recall.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, uh, so my my great-grandfather, uh John Widmer, um, came over from Switzerland in 1905 when he was 18 years old.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in order to come over, he had to he had to get uh a visa and he had to have a job lined up uh in order for in order to come over.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh apparently he had taken an interest in cheese making in in Switzerland while he was there, uh while he was growing up, uh, because Switzerland does have a very rich uh cheese making history.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so he got a job as an apprenticeship cheesemaker in Switzerland, or uh, I'm sorry, in Wisconsin.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that would have been in Greenwood, Wisconsin, uh, which is kind of kind of north-central part of Wisconsin.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and he worked there for a while, and then he ended up getting a job at a plant in Kikoski, Wisconsin, which is about 10 miles from Theresa, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, where our current plant is located.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I see Kikoski.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've got the map up right now.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's pretty close.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they they taught him how to make brick cheese at this Kikoski plant.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's where he learned how to make the the first cheese and our the the cheese that we're um known for, the the brick cheese.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so since we're talking brick cheese, I need to talk about the bricks because I uh uh I watched the Luke Zom episode where he came and kind of toured your plant and did a little feature on you guys, which I thought was awesome.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I've actually interviewed Luke, so that's really cool.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, what's the story behind the bricks and why you think it's important to keep using mainly all of those same bricks?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um well, uh brick cheese was invented in Wisconsin uh in the 1870s by another Swiss immigrant named John Yasse.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he invented that the uh the brick cheese in Dodge County, the same county where we make our cheese.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the reason it it's called brick cheese, so you pour the the curds, the curds and whey get poured into a cheese form, and at that point the curds are about the size of, you know, if you're familiar with cottage cheese curds, they're like the size of those same curds with whey, liquid whey, and then um you take a brick, put it on top of the the curd, and it presses it into a block, and it presses out uh the excess whey, and it also knits the curd together into a block.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that that's how brick cheese got its name, and a lot of you know, a lot of people don't know that.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're still using the same bricks, uh, some of the same bricks that my great-grandfather used when he bought our plant in 1922.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're we're grandfathered in by the state to use those bricks.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we find that it's uh it's a part of our story and our heritage.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're the only factory that I know of um that still uses uh the bricks to make the brick cheese.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: There are other factories making brick making brick cheese, but they're just not using bricks.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think there are two reasons for that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one, it's uh it it makes it very very labor intensive.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um because when we make um we make a full day's production of brick cheese, we're making 500 loaves of five-pound brick.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you're having to move these actual bricks to press the cheese uh you know three times, and and they're five-pound bricks, they're not light.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um the the second reason would be um, you know, if if you're mass producing making cheese in large batches, which a lot of factories are nowadays, um, you know, it's just not economical or ergonomical really to be moving uh a ton of bricks around.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: So but no, that that's like I said uh we make cheese.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was just gonna say, uh I kind of I might skip around.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I just wanted to say why why you're choosing to still do it that way rather than uh you know, as as you said, you can do things you know more economically, there's so much more technology, but why do you think it really adds to just the authenticity, or why do you choose to say so to stay so true to you know what true brick cheese means?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think definitely to preserve the authenticity of of the cheese making process and how that cheese was invented.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then like in our case, when you become the only the only factory that left doing that, it just it's like why at this point after after 103 years should we should we change it?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's uh gotten us this far.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: And now, you know, people are people are amazed.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, they actually could you know come to our retail store to see the the brick cheese being made.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think it's important to preserve that history.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, I think when you're making smaller batches like we are, it it makes a better product.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can tell the higher quality, and you know, all the cheese makers, including myself, we know exactly what's going on through every step of the process, and we can make small tweaks here and there to help with the quality and flavor of the cheese.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I I think that's just important.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know that the bricks made it through to my my generation, fourth generation, and I think, you know, why not just keep preserving that legacy?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I absolutely love that.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh it like I said, it shows.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I again I'll say it again, I'll say it a hundred times throughout this episode.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: It it shows your cheese just in Wisconsin is full of great cheesemakers, and that brings me to my next question, actually.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um just kind of the camaraderie between you know dairies or creameries or cheese shops.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um like is it a competition?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Is it uh supporting each other?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Just kind of how does that look like?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think obviously it really resonates with Wisconsin culture, is you know, your kind of cheese shops.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: So can you talk about you know supporting other cheese shops, or are you trying to beat the other one?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Or do you know what I'm trying to get at?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yep.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, yeah, there's definitely a lot of camaraderie between all the cheese makers, and there's also a level of respect and uh understanding, and I I think that we all kind of uh lean on each other as well.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, certain times.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely have uh mentors in the cheese industry that that I've reached out to with questions, um, and I've never really been turned down um for advice.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I've also had cheesemakers reach out to me.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's a it's a very friendly um you know arena of cheesemakers.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like we're we're cutthroat competition.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: There is competition.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you do want to make the best um product better or the best cheese possible, but I think that that makes everybody better because you know, if you don't have any competition, then there's no there's no real desire to try to be better.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think we all understand that.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it's always good to have a little competition uh because it raises your quality.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, that being said, we also all the all the cheese factories, we all have a little bit different product to offer or a different story to tell.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, different there's a lot of history within the the cheese factories and cheesemakers in Wisconsin.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them are generational, you know, a lot of them are third, fourth, fifth generation.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's also some new cheesemakers that have come out, um, you know, that that they weren't born into it, and I give those guys a lot of respect too because it's it's hard to start um a small factory nowadays, um and you know, have that much appreciation for it where you uh you know you basically start with uh with nothing.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well that is a great answer.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: I love that because uh yeah, competition just breeds and breeds improvement and it does.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, it just it really just does.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I'm going to step away from cheese for a second and just talk about Wisconsin in general, because obviously I'm from Wisconsin, you're from Wisconsin, all my family's from Wisconsin, I bleed green and gold, green Bay Packers, Wisconsin through and through.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: But what does being from Wisconsin mean to you?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I I take uh a lot of pride uh being from Wisconsin and I I love it here.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I love culture.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh same with you.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I bleed green and gold.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a huge Packers fan.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and I I just like the culture and everything about it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have every every season, all four seasons.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you don't know what season it is between uh winter and spring, or between um uh fall and summer, but uh at some point you will get that season to the extreme.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like a month ago we had below zero, and uh you know, this week we we were in the in the 60s, so that's just uh Wisconsin for you.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was just gonna say more.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh sorry.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was just excited, I couldn't agree more because weather-wise we went through the same thing.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: It was 70 degrees on Tuesday here, and today we're expecting three to six inches of snow.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: But no what so what I like to tell people about Wisconsin.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, go ahead.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you you first uh oh yeah, so I was just gonna say what being Wisconsin for me what it means is we have immense pride in ourselves and in our our crafts, regardless of what that is, but not to the point of arrogance.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like we just have so much pride, but it's not arrogant.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: And everyone is just always so nice.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like they coin the term Midwest nice, and it's not a throwaway.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: You really everyone supports each other, cares about each other.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's just such a state that you know relies on kind of what our country was built on, you know, agriculture and um just hard work.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if you resonate with that at all, but that's kind of what being Wisconsin for me means.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I was definitely gonna use the term uh Midwest nice.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's that's yeah, that's a big one for me.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh I would say hard hard working.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: We take a lot of pride in our culture, um, you know, not just cheesemakers, but other professions as well.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think really um you can trust maybe leave your maybe don't leave your house unlocked for a week, but you know, definitely small town small town communities where you know people rally together and you know you you just feel comfortable with your your neighbor.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, well that is amazing.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I can't I I think I'm gonna do one more segment and then I'm going to give you your surprise.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna get back into cheese.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and you don't need you don't need to give me all of your family secrets or anything.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: But for someone who has no idea how to make cheese, can you just kind of define the process?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's just wild how you can take just these simple ingredients and get so many different kinds of cheeses.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: So if you could just kind of give me a little uh cheese making 101 without, like I said, uh giving away any family secrets.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh well, uh from a basic level, um you you need uh the first thing you need quality milk.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, and uh some cheesemakers do mix different flavor.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh from there, uh Joey, real quick.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Basically you can do a raw milk cheese.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: So uh first the main ingredient um is milk, and uh you want to use uh you know high quality milk.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, you could you can use cow, goat, sheep, uh milk.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some cheesemakers do mixed milk cheeses, um, and they all have a little bit different flavor.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Really depends what you're going for.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh from there, you can either do uh a rum or you can pasteurize the milk.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Most people are doing pasteurized milk nowadays.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then from there you select your the type of culture that you want to use for your cheese variety.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Different cheese cultures are going to give a little bit different flavor variations.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's different bacteria, like I said, different cultures, but really you want the culture of the milk itself.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh from there, uh, once you add the cultures to your vat of milk, um you add uh an enzyme, uh, most commonly uh rennet.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's animal rennet that you can use, but you can also use like a microbial rennet or fermentation for.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: produced chymosin rennet rennet uh which is derived from the animal rennet but what the enzyme does what that rennet enzyme does it it coagulates the milk um after dropping the pH and then you're so basically at that point um your fat of milk when it coagulates it's like it's like gelatin or like jello almost and from there you can uh cut the curd and most commonly you cut the curd with uh wire knives and you know most commonly half inch to a quarter inch um so the larger curd size uh the more keys you will have by a rule of thumb that the smaller the curd size the lower one um oh okay only like I said those curves are like a quarter to a half all right so are you ready for your curve ball um and then cook it in the van and and then you um drain rectangles you can do 40 pound blocks there's some cheddar manufacturers that make uh uh 640 pound blocks uh or more geared towards ingredient cheese but you'll see more of the artisans do it in smaller smaller blocks or uh or or you know like 20 pound wheels or 10 pound wheels of cheese so and then uh get into refrigeration and you can also you know cure the cheese uh some cheeses get brined in the sub brine you know they can be brine you know some Italian cheeses are brined up to 48 hours um whereas like a brick cheese like we make that gets brine for about eight hours then from there you can uh cure the cheese even further so you can do an H jetter age it out for 10 years 10 20 years or you can do like a wash rhyme cheese where uh once it gets out of the brine goes to a curing room and you add other culture bacteria which which gives it a surface rind or you add uh some type of mold uh like blue cheese um or you know like uh camembert you're you're basically putting some type of mold on on the outside surface of the cheese to get it to cure further so that's basically cheese making in a nutshell well you're making me hungry yeah hopefully I didn't confuse anybody with that process so no but I think it's really important to and like you make it sound so simple but it's also just the attention to detail, the measurements things like that that there yeah there's a lot of little stuff that that goes into it um on a daily basis that can the difference between a um you know a good cheese or a great cheese really comes down to like you said the the attention the small attention to detail yeah and I I I see that because like I'll go to for example we have high V I'll get a block of high V cheese and it tastes fine there's nothing wrong with it but then my parents will come down with maybe a block of brick from you or maybe Car Valley or one of the other um cheese factories in Wisconsin and I'm like this just blows that crap out of the water like it's not even close.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah yeah I can definitely uh taste the difference as well and uh you know some of those some of the bigger manufacturers you can tell the difference between them or a smaller producer and uh you know I think uh it definitely goes to the quality piece of you know small smaller batches and higher quality and more attention to detail um over over quantity produced so well I think go ahead I think cheese making is uh you know if you're if you're making small batches like a lot of small artists in play star Wisconsin it's it's an art as well as a science and I think if you treat it that way um it'll it'll enhance your cheese if you look at it in that regard you'll you'll do such a you know a better job of making your cheese um and have more respect for the the process yeah absolutely um so I was just before we get into your curve ball I did want to mention my late grandmother because the Widmer brick was her favorite cheese of all time and I remember going to the plant with her and my family and she she just lit up like a light bulb so I just wanted to kind of mention that because that as a young kid that really sticks in my mind.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I just wanted to share that real quick.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that that's awesome I'm happy to hear that I'm happy that uh we we get to you know be a part of people's uh fond memories and those those shared experiences with loved ones and when they think of those uh experiences you know it they either you know they relate it to our cheese or eating our cheese takes us takes them back to those um those shared memories so thanks for sharing that no absolutely so all right it's finally time for your curve ball it's a segment I do pretty much with most of my guests it's just called Mount Rushmore so we're gonna do Mount Rushmore of cheeses okay so um we're just going to kind of riff back and forth on just our favorite types of cheese obviously I know what you guys do but uh yeah just talk about you know your top four cheeses so I don't know do you want to go first or do you want me to go first?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh whatever you prefer.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go first and I'll say it's again I'll say it it's brick cheese whether it's from you guys which makes the best but just brick cheese in general I think it's just so versatile and delicious you can eat it just you know cheese curds you can eat it by the slice you can melt it uh it's used in uh Detroit style pizza it's honestly I think the best cheese in the world so that is my number one is brick cheese easy you want me to go with my number one now yep okay um I would say my own cheese but I don't want to be that guy so um well let's see uh Velveeta no I'm just joking um Velveeta does serve a purpose but um that's not my uh number one cheese I would say like uh like a Swiss gray year um I've had some really good really good cheese and uh I really like that the gray year uh the flavor it's almost like a cheddar but but it's not um and I've had I've had uh you know gray year from Switzerland and I think that might be my my top cheese but really I I really like a lot of different cheeses um so that's uh that's what I'm gonna say my number one is today I respect that because we use the groyir in uh I make a crookman search and that is the perfect cheese for a crookman sear so I completely appreciate that uh my number two is actually kind of a little bit of a dark horse uh it's just Munster okay I just like Mster cheese it's I I don't even know how to explain it.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's just very good on just a simple deli sandwich or even mixing it in a little bit in a mac and cheese or something I think a monster is kind of underrated yeah and I it has uh great meltability too I mean it it it makes a a good grilled cheese or I shouldn't say good a great grilled cheese it would be good on a burger um you know a little bit uh higher moisture so that's why it has better meltability higher moisture higher fat so I would agree with you on that that's a good cheese um we started making a buttercase a couple years ago that's kind of similar not you stole my number three oh well that's where I was going with number two because that's uh number two is now the the buttercase uh that we started making not not just ours but I like I've had other variety you know other uh companies buttercase as well and uh I think that right now is my number two cheese well man I'm gonna have to adapt because that was my that I'm gonna I'm gonna put a buttercase just agree and I'll pick another because okay I I was never actually exposed to it ever and my my mom and dad came down and brought some buttercase and I was like oh my god this is incredible did they bring ours or um I don't know what uh brand they brought but it was just like it was just eye-opening so delicious yeah so actually uh I didn't know a lot about buttercase I I think I knew of it but I never really uh consumed any or tried I've probably tried it here and there but somebody kind of said to me it was kind of a mentor two thousand uh twenty can you hear me Dan Hey we we we definitely lost you there I don't know if you're go going through some up and down hills or something sure why it shows uh all all four or all five bars and it says 5G so yeah I'm not sure what happened but and I'm not sure at what point you lost me but I I went on a random play start back on the buttercase yeah start back on the buttercase yeah so um yeah buttercase um I'm a mentor uh suggested that you know they could they said have you ever made buttercase before I think that would be a good fit for your for your factory and I'm like no uh we've we never made buttercase I don't know a lot about it um but I'll definitely look into it so start looking into it um next thing you knew you know I was uh calling uh the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research um they're a great resource for cheesemakers in Wisconsin and they know throughout the United States actually they help a lot of people um so I reached out to them uh they came to our factory in I think March of 2023 uh we made a trial batch of uh buttercase and uh from there we kind of tweaked the recipe on our own um got the cultures that we wanted to use um and then you know like I said tweaked the recipe and uh next thing you know uh buttercase so we're three years into the process um we've won a couple awards already so yeah um I think buttercase is kind of one of those uh you know overlooked cheeses um basically it's a very rich creamy buttery cheese uh pretty mild so uh it appeals to a lot of different palettes oh I couldn't I couldn't agree more higher fat yeah yeah so that's that's why it's in my number two spot so we we do a plain butter case uh one with chives oh that'd be cool yeah that sounds good a little bit of a kind of bite to it as well to kind of offset the the buttery creaminess yeah that sounds awesome yeah this the smoke goes well with uh the but the butteriness so well like I said you already stole my number three so way to go yeah there's a uh viral video going around right now with uh or a video that went viral on social media basically people are putting uh butter case on their sweet potato I don't know if you've seen that at all I don't know if I have but I'll definitely look that up yeah we we shared on our social media and I've I don't know if it's a coincidence but since that video went viral and it's more than one person posting it but one person started at the trend if you will um I've noticed uh our buttercase sales have gone up considerably so uh don't know if that's part of it probably helped so thank you to whoever whoever invented that I haven't tried it myself yet I do like sweet potatoes and I do like buttercase and I do think it probably would be a a decent combo I might need to experiment with that this weekend think you should oh I might do that so like I said well you already stole my buttercase um I'm just gonna actually go mozzarella I think it's just cheese in its purest form it's again I'm not a cheesemaker but it just like I said it it's just the freshest purest cheese so I'm just gonna go mozzarella it maybe sounds a little lame I don't want it to be a capo but I there's nothing better than a fresh ball of mozzarella no I I I've had fresh motz before and it's yeah uh you can just you can taste the freshness uh in it yeah it's one of those cheeses that um it has uh a lot of different uses and you know a big one is pizza I mean the main the main cheese on pizza is mozzarella so yeah but also many other different uses so absolutely so do you have two more or one more I can't remember I think we're on are we uh Mount Rushmore so uh what are we three four five so I think you're on three I definitely I'm on three yeah so I'm gonna I'm just gonna say uh it's kind of a broad category but I'm gonna say like a alpine style cheese um and that that might be too broad of a category but we we make uh a Matterhorn Alpine style cheddar so um it's our original cheddar recipe and then we use cultures that would be associated with an alpine style cheese um and that's definitely in my my top three so I'm gonna I'm gonna say it's my third favorite all right well I have to skip to four like I said because Buttercase was on my three um I'm going just Colby just a simple just a simple Colby cheese again it's great on sandwiches and I think if I recall it's was that actually invented in Wisconsin?
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember yes yep invented in the uh yeah invented in the village of Colby Wisconsin yep not not too far from where you grew up actually in Chipotle Falls I mean well maybe it's farther than I think but it's kind of in that area but yeah uh yeah I just love it just a nice Colby you can do Colby Jack you can do whatever just I just love a good Colby cheese yep you can do yeah uh peppers you can do vegetable seasoning you can do caraway caraway colby's got a good flavor we make a caraway colby oh yeah it's out there uh just south of Abbotsford yep yeah so yeah I'm just gonna go Colby you can't go wrong with a good Colby you can all right you got one more and then we're gonna keep going one more I'm gonna have to say brick cheese well duh yeah I have to have brick in my mountain rush more because you know brick is our is what we're known for I you know and I don't I it's not just in my top four because of that I would say uh you know it's it's uh very versatile so if you need a plane you can make a grilled awesome grilled cheese you can put it on a burger um lasagna pizza the list goes on so and you can also make an age brick which is uh the original type of brick is the the wash rind european style which is kind of like a completely different cheese than the mild it's a lot it's a lot funkier isn't it it is a lot it's a lot funkier it's a cousin to limburger uh not not nearly as strong but um it is similar to limburger uh with the aroma in the flavor but not quite as pungent and that that really goes into the the art of the cheese when you're you Trying to get that uh the surface rind on the cheese.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: The make process is basically the same up until the point where it comes out of the cheese brine, and then when it goes into the hearing room, that's where we're adding these different um culture bacteria to get the surface rind on the cheese, um, hence making age brick.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: So well, I think most people today are yeah.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I was gonna say I think we have a good list of Mount Rushmore.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I just uh can I just like teleport to Teresa right now?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: Gee, many Christmas.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so again, that was a lot of fun.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: So looking ahead, obviously we've talked about wanting to stay authentic and sticking with tradition, but is there anything you know you're kind of pursuing, I guess, or to grow your business, or just anything you're really excited about?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: I really just want to give you the floor to talk about where you think Widmers is headed in the future.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, my uh shout out to my mom and sister.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they put a lot of work in to get us into the National Historic Register or National Historic Register this this summer.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or this it officially is known as National Registry of Historic Places.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so if you come visit our uh retail store and Teresa, so it's a couple different pronunciations of our village, it's Theresa or Teresa, whatever you prefer.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: But the correct pronunciation is probably Teresa.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I get that question a lot.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: What what's the correct pronunciation?
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's named after uh Solomon Juno, I believe his daughter.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: So uh Teresa would be the correct one, anyways.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you come visit our retail store, um you'll see a plaque out front when you before you walk in that says National Register of Historic Places.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's pretty cool.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um no, that's not pretty cool, that's really, really cool.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we're we're very proud of that.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think you know, we've preserved the those old techniques of cheese making through a hundred years and through four generations, and we've also preserved you know the the building and all those little cheese-making techniques that go into how we make our cheese.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you know that's kind of the goal is to stick stick with that tradition.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we want people to come to our sorry if you can hear my dog in the background crawling.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um we want to stick to stick to those uh true cheese making methods and traditions.
• 47:18
  unknown: Shh.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: And oh shit, it's fine.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: That actually makes it even better that I heard that.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think that's that's what we're that's what we're known for, and that's what we want to continue to do.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, um uh, you know, I also want to you know look into making other other varieties of cheese or experimenting with certain cheeses, like we came up with the buttercase uh, you know, a couple years ago.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think it's important to also, you know, always have those in your back pocket.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's great.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: So before we sign off, I want everyone listening to know where they can purchase your cheese.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, if if you're in the Wisconsin area, head to Teresa directly to their to their cheese shop and buy as much cheese as you can fit in your car.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: You won't be disappointed.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, for people like me in Omaha, Nebraska, uh, do you offer shipping options or what's the best way to uh get your get our hands on your cheese?
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: So um if you go to our website at www.widmerscheese.com.com, um there is a where to buy on the website, um, and that'll kind of give you a general list of stores uh in whatever state you're from.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the other option is we do ship um UPS to anywhere in the United States.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, we offer all of our cheeses on online at on the website.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can go on the website or you can call the order in, uh, whatever you prefer.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, uh a lot of specialty cheese stores carry our cheese in different states throughout the United States.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we we make four different varieties, so you know, some might have the brick, some might have cheddar.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um I always tell people, you know, if you're looking for a specific uh variety, if you're looking for brick or cheddar under the Whitmer brand, um you might it might be best to call the store ahead of time and say, hey, what uh Whitmer's cheese do you have available?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh if they don't have what you're looking for, maybe mention that they should start to carry it.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: So well, awesome.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I appreciate your time so much.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: We ended this perfectly, exactly one hour.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, before we wrap up, I just I just wanted to thank you so much today uh to talk about your craft, what it means like to be from Wisconsin, and for all my listeners out there, these conversations really remind me why I love doing this show.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Getting to sit down with people like Joey, who carry on traditions that truly matter, who put their heart into their craft, who keep Wisconsin's story alive in their own way.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: So if you've enjoyed this episode, as Joey said, please make sure to check out their website.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh buy all of their cheese.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: I 100% guarantee it will blow you out of the water how good it is.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And again, Joey, thanks so much for being here.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: And we will sign off from Stream of Consciousness with Dan.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you next time.