MONROE - Tens of thousands of people visited Cheese Days last weekend. Some of them blogged about it. The following are some blog entries found Tuesday afternoon about visits to the three-day biennial festival.
Blog: Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food
Site: food-fun.wisconsinfood.com
In September, entire Wisconsin towns block off their Main Streets and throw weekend-long town parties. Last weekend, Monroe, Wisconsin celebrated its cheese-making heritage.
World-class cheesemakers demonstrated how they make cheese. Kids learned everything about the wonderful art of cheesemaking, from the sweet grass cows eat, to the milking, to the cooking, stirring and separating, to the aging process of cheese, to the delicious tasting.
Adults washed down squeaky-fresh cheese curds with fresh micro-brewery beers and listened to live music in the streets. And the town topped off the fun with the Wisconsin-famous, Monroe Cheese Days Parade!
Blog: You've Gotta Love Wisconsin!!
Site: passionatechaos. wordpress.com
This is the type of thing I just LOVE about my home state! Where else do they devote an entire weekend which includes a festival and parade all devoted to cheese?
So, we took the boys to Cheese Days in Monroe today. It was actually a lot of fun. Some areas are similar to a mini fair with carnival rides and concession type stands. There is also a large craft fair which we didn't go to because I thought the kids would probably just break everything.
There was also a tent with a bunch of farm-related activities for the kids like trivia, mini-tractor race, baby cows and corn pit. There was also an antique tractor and car show.
Then of course ... there was the cheese and all things cheese related. There were samples of over 100 cheeses; we probably bought 5 pounds worth. Of course we got grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, too.
Only Wisconsin could dedicate that much time and effort to cheese! Yummmm!!
Blog: MISH MASH
Site: amy-mishmash. blogspot.com
Yesterday I went to Green County Cheese Days. You'll never guess what they had there. Cheese as far as the eye could see. Any flavor, any texture, any aroma. I even attempted to eat a Limburger, salami and onion sandwich. I got a few bites down, but ... eww.
There was a cow-milking contest. One boy was just yanking away ... I felt sorry for the cow. Check out the crowd that the event drew! People in these parts like them some cow-milking contests!
Blog: This Crazy Life
Site: quartergoddess. blogspot.com
"Well, another Cheese Days has come and gone. I didn't see anyone with a tail this year, but don't think that all my enjoyment of this event was contingent on seeing someone wearing a tail, because it wasn't.
There was tons of good cheese for tasting. I bought a jalepeno havarti and an aged swiss ... yum, yum, yum.
There was tons of good food in general. I had funnel cake for the first time. Mmm. Tastes like doughnuts, ice cream, root beer, cheesecake on a stick, nachos, corn dogs and corn on the cob.
There was so, so much more, but, I think you might have needed to be there to really understand. Long live Cheese Days!"
Blog: Ask Geo
Site: blogs.e-rockford.com
Went to the every-other-year Cheese Days last weekend in Monroe, Wis., an hour's drive northwest of Rockford. What a bucolic Green County seat of about 10,000 people surrounded by gently rolling countryside and cows.
OK, now let's get to the real point of this post: I should have known better.
Let me explain. Sure, Cheese Days includes sampling lots of cheeses and spreads for free, watching parades, drinking beer and enjoying small-town life and its people. But the big draw is the beer-battered cheese curds.
And I may have blown my opportunity to tell all those who watch video at discoverwisconsin.com how highly regarded and tasty these morsels are. Let me explain.
I had to stand in line for 20 minutes early Friday afternoon just to get a ticket to buy the curds. Then I had to stand in another line for another 20 minutes or so to actually buy the curds. I visited most of the time with a local woman who was on her lunch break getting curds for several coworkers at the insurance firm where they worked on the downtown square, where all the action for the weekend was taking place. She told me all about how these curds are better than the ones sold at bars around the downtown square, because they're coated with beer batter. And she told me that the lines to buy the tickets for the curds and the lines to buy them would be four-deep Saturday night at the height of the festival. It could take 1.5 hours before a curd hit your mouth.
I'd seen a TV camera filming the people who were frying the curds. But all of a sudden, a woman with a microphone was interviewing the woman I'd been visiting with. She asked her a few questions, and I listened while still waiting for my curds. The local woman never offered the interviewer a curd, so after their interview ended, I asked the interviewer if she'd like one or two of mine.
Well, the interviewer thought that was so nice of me, that she told the cameraman to film me for a Discover Wisconsin video (to be posted next May) while she asked where I was from. "Loves Park, Illinois," I said. And of course, she liked it that yet-another Illinoisan was coming to Wisconsin to spend money. Then she asked me if I go to lots of Cheese Days.
That's where I may have blown it. I told her the last time was four years ago, the day my mom died. I remember I was at Cheese Days when I was called back home because her caregivers believed she wouldn't have long to live. I returned to Belvidere, and she died early that evening when I was with her. I didn't tell the interviewer all of that. But I could see by her look that she was wondering why in the heck she'd spent a minute interviewing me when I associated Cheese Days with death ... Moral of my story: Think before you speak, especially with beloved cheese curds in your mouth."
Blog: Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food
Site: food-fun.wisconsinfood.com
In September, entire Wisconsin towns block off their Main Streets and throw weekend-long town parties. Last weekend, Monroe, Wisconsin celebrated its cheese-making heritage.
World-class cheesemakers demonstrated how they make cheese. Kids learned everything about the wonderful art of cheesemaking, from the sweet grass cows eat, to the milking, to the cooking, stirring and separating, to the aging process of cheese, to the delicious tasting.
Adults washed down squeaky-fresh cheese curds with fresh micro-brewery beers and listened to live music in the streets. And the town topped off the fun with the Wisconsin-famous, Monroe Cheese Days Parade!
Blog: You've Gotta Love Wisconsin!!
Site: passionatechaos. wordpress.com
This is the type of thing I just LOVE about my home state! Where else do they devote an entire weekend which includes a festival and parade all devoted to cheese?
So, we took the boys to Cheese Days in Monroe today. It was actually a lot of fun. Some areas are similar to a mini fair with carnival rides and concession type stands. There is also a large craft fair which we didn't go to because I thought the kids would probably just break everything.
There was also a tent with a bunch of farm-related activities for the kids like trivia, mini-tractor race, baby cows and corn pit. There was also an antique tractor and car show.
Then of course ... there was the cheese and all things cheese related. There were samples of over 100 cheeses; we probably bought 5 pounds worth. Of course we got grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, too.
Only Wisconsin could dedicate that much time and effort to cheese! Yummmm!!
Blog: MISH MASH
Site: amy-mishmash. blogspot.com
Yesterday I went to Green County Cheese Days. You'll never guess what they had there. Cheese as far as the eye could see. Any flavor, any texture, any aroma. I even attempted to eat a Limburger, salami and onion sandwich. I got a few bites down, but ... eww.
There was a cow-milking contest. One boy was just yanking away ... I felt sorry for the cow. Check out the crowd that the event drew! People in these parts like them some cow-milking contests!
Blog: This Crazy Life
Site: quartergoddess. blogspot.com
"Well, another Cheese Days has come and gone. I didn't see anyone with a tail this year, but don't think that all my enjoyment of this event was contingent on seeing someone wearing a tail, because it wasn't.
There was tons of good cheese for tasting. I bought a jalepeno havarti and an aged swiss ... yum, yum, yum.
There was tons of good food in general. I had funnel cake for the first time. Mmm. Tastes like doughnuts, ice cream, root beer, cheesecake on a stick, nachos, corn dogs and corn on the cob.
There was so, so much more, but, I think you might have needed to be there to really understand. Long live Cheese Days!"
Blog: Ask Geo
Site: blogs.e-rockford.com
Went to the every-other-year Cheese Days last weekend in Monroe, Wis., an hour's drive northwest of Rockford. What a bucolic Green County seat of about 10,000 people surrounded by gently rolling countryside and cows.
OK, now let's get to the real point of this post: I should have known better.
Let me explain. Sure, Cheese Days includes sampling lots of cheeses and spreads for free, watching parades, drinking beer and enjoying small-town life and its people. But the big draw is the beer-battered cheese curds.
And I may have blown my opportunity to tell all those who watch video at discoverwisconsin.com how highly regarded and tasty these morsels are. Let me explain.
I had to stand in line for 20 minutes early Friday afternoon just to get a ticket to buy the curds. Then I had to stand in another line for another 20 minutes or so to actually buy the curds. I visited most of the time with a local woman who was on her lunch break getting curds for several coworkers at the insurance firm where they worked on the downtown square, where all the action for the weekend was taking place. She told me all about how these curds are better than the ones sold at bars around the downtown square, because they're coated with beer batter. And she told me that the lines to buy the tickets for the curds and the lines to buy them would be four-deep Saturday night at the height of the festival. It could take 1.5 hours before a curd hit your mouth.
I'd seen a TV camera filming the people who were frying the curds. But all of a sudden, a woman with a microphone was interviewing the woman I'd been visiting with. She asked her a few questions, and I listened while still waiting for my curds. The local woman never offered the interviewer a curd, so after their interview ended, I asked the interviewer if she'd like one or two of mine.
Well, the interviewer thought that was so nice of me, that she told the cameraman to film me for a Discover Wisconsin video (to be posted next May) while she asked where I was from. "Loves Park, Illinois," I said. And of course, she liked it that yet-another Illinoisan was coming to Wisconsin to spend money. Then she asked me if I go to lots of Cheese Days.
That's where I may have blown it. I told her the last time was four years ago, the day my mom died. I remember I was at Cheese Days when I was called back home because her caregivers believed she wouldn't have long to live. I returned to Belvidere, and she died early that evening when I was with her. I didn't tell the interviewer all of that. But I could see by her look that she was wondering why in the heck she'd spent a minute interviewing me when I associated Cheese Days with death ... Moral of my story: Think before you speak, especially with beloved cheese curds in your mouth."