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 … Continue reading →