Today, you get a little insight into some of my many foraging expeditions: Fieldtrip! Uplands Cheeses in Wisconsin. This August, I got to go to Uplands Cheese while I was visiting the Madison area. This was a really special trip for me, because they make one of my favorite American cheeses, Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Uplands Cheese is about an hour drive out into the Wisconsin countryside from Madison. The hills get green and rolling, the barns become frequent, and the idyllic living we see in movies becomes three-dimensional. It reminds me of all the good parts of the rural living I grew up with. While there isn’t an Indian grocery store for miles (an important indicator of whether I would be willing to reside in a city or not), the food that is available was grown right there. You can meet the farmers. You can see the pride they take in their work. You can see a spotless dairy farm and cheese production site. It seems impossible that a dairy farm can be so clean, but it is. And then there’s the cheese. Pleasant Ridge Reserve is an alpine style cheese, kind of like gruyère. It’s nutty and sweet and creamy and perfectly firm but not hard. Especially if you can get some of the extra aged cheese- I really like their 18 month wheels. I had an amazing time meeting the cheese maker, seeing the facility, meeting the cows, and asking lots of production questions. While you can’t take a tour generally, you can buy the cheese. I love putting it on a cheeseboard, particularly when I have foreign guests because it really is an amazing example of the exceptional cheesemaking going on in the States. I rarely cook with this cheese, because it’s truly special (and the price reflects that) but because of the robust flavor, a little goes a long way. And the omelette that bears this cheese is truly a perfect omelette. Someday I’ll be brave enough to make a Quiche Lorraine with this one. So enjoy my Fieldtrip! Uplands Cheeses in Wisconsin, I sure did.

This is a picture of the curds in the cheese molds. Here the young cheeses are given a salt bath. There is no salt in the curd itself. It’s just applied to the outside of the cheese.   I got to taste a core sample of one of the aging cheeses. It is tested regularly to ensure that it’s developing properly and so that the cheese maker can select which ones should be singled out for extra aging.

Eventually, the cheeses are labeled and shipped out. That’s the good part in my mind.

Oh, and I got to meet the cows. That part was cool too.