June is Dairy Month, and around here it’s all about cheese. Visitors to Green County’s National Historic Cheesemaking Center that doubles as our Welcome Center often ask where they can watch cheese being made. That annual event is upon us, next Saturday, June 8. A cadre of our master cheesemakers will make a wheel of real Swiss cheese, formally known as “Emmentaler,” after Switzerland’s Emme Valley where it originated.
This event will take place at the NHCC in the reconstituted Imobersteg farm factory, exactly as it was done a century ago. This is a great opportunity for locals as well as for tourists to Green County.
When I was a kid during the 1940s and ‘50s on a typical farm of that era, I never imagined Green County as a tourist destination. Green County was thought of as strictly production agriculture — small dairy herds with supplementary hog operations, the hogs nourished by whey, a byproduct of cheesemaking. These typical farms all had a flock of chickens, the enterprise of farm wives.
Those typical herds of 25 to 50 cows have all but disappeared. Remaining dairy operations are fewer and larger — much larger. Cows wandering into milking parlors at their leisure, milked by robots and rewarded with computer-generated customized rations, were beyond the wildest imaginations of those laboring the old way. “Impossible, could never happen,” had such wild fantasy even occurred to us.
Supplementary hog operations no longer accompany dairy farming. Instead of a nourishing treat for hogs, the whey accompanying cheesemaking is now processed as protein supplements for powerful body builders, and those aspiring to be.
The small flocks of chickens common to farms in days gone by have also disappeared. When the baby chicks reached a certain stage, they were released from the brooder house to run loose in the orchard for the summer as they grew to maturity. Come autumn, we would catch them and put them in the chicken house where, now mature, they would lay eggs all winter. Farm wives would sell these eggs locally. My mother enjoyed her “egg route,” giving her a chance to visit with the “city women” of Monroe.
Even if farm wives of today wanted to raise chickens, 20th century technology would not work. We did not have coyotes roaming this area back then. Today, coyotes would make short work of a flock of chickens running loose in the orchard.
Although Green County was strictly production agriculture, and locals did not think of this as a tourist destination, the Village of New Glarus was ahead of the game. The village had long capitalized on its Swiss heritage to attract tourists for a variety of events, including the Heidi Festival and the Wilhelm Tell Pageant. In the mid-1950s, Walt Disney Productions brought Annette Funicello and the Mouseketeers to New Glarus for a segment on Dairy Farming in Wisconsin. Swiss immigrant, entertainer and accordion instructor Rudy Burkhalter was commissioned to write a song for this event. He came up with “Teach me how to Yodel,” a popular number performed on virtually every occasion featuring Swiss entertainment.
Perhaps it was partly due to increasing urbanization of the nation, and the increasing distance of younger generations from actual farming. And the nostalgia for small towns as they once were. There are many county courthouse squares throughout the nation, but it’s no exaggeration that Monroe’s courthouse Square is among the best kept and most scenic courthouse squares in the nation. It all contributed to Monroe, New Glarus, and Green County in general, becoming an increasingly popular “getaway” for city folks, many of them from Chicago and northern Illinois.
In 2005, Green County took what was then seen as a bold step, hiring a full time director of tourism. Noreen Reuckert has served admirably in this capacity, coordinating the monumental effort to put on our biennial Cheese Days celebration. She is responsible for, and coordinates countless activities, including producing the annual Green County events publication found in the interstate highway rest stops throughout the state.
Noreen’s recent effort was working with the “Discover Wisconsin” television series to select filming locations and fine-tune a script showcasing Green County. The episode is called “SWISS-consin,” (discoverwisconsin.com/video/green-county/). To quote Noreen, “The show is loaded with fun moments and local personalities, like cheesemakers, brewers, musicians, business owners and historians. More than 600,000 ‘Discover Wisconsin’ viewers will watch the show.”
Featured in the episode were Green County’s two major breweries and our recent microbrewery, the Bullquarian Brewhouse.
The Minhas Brewery, formerly the Joseph Huber Brewery, is the Midwest’s oldest operating brewery, and second oldest in the nation.
The New Glarus Brewery is a rare example of a microbrewery, originating in 1993, so rapidly growing into a large brewery. Sure, it’s good beer, but its unbelievable growth is due to the untiring effort and marketing genius of Deb Carey, wife of brew master Dan Carey. Deb’s achievement earned her the privilege of accompanying Michelle Obama during one of President Obama’s State of the Union addresses.
The “SWISS-consin” episode features two nationally famous small town taverns, Baumgartner’s of Monroe and Puempel’s Olde Tavern of New Glarus. The Swiss card game “Jass” and Limburger cheese tasting are also featured in this segment.
Those of us long associated with it are pleased that Turner Hall was featured. This segment includes contributions by Sherry Anderegg and scenes at Turner Hall’s Ratskeller, with shots of familiar diners attending its monthly “Squeezebox Night.” Even some of us weekend accordionists appear briefly.
The “SWISS-consin” episode features the NHCC with spots for its Executive Director Donna Douglas, and former executive director and longtime contributor to NHCC’s success, Jim Glessner.
Saturday, June 8, at the NHCC, our cheese heritage comes alive with our master cheesemakers practicing their craft; creating a wheel of real Swiss cheese before your eyes. They might even let you take your turn at stirring the kettle and tasting that body-building whey. This event celebrating our heritage cannot be missed.
— John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Saturdays in the Monroe Times.
