From the land of cheeseheads

When John's nephew came to visit a few weeks ago he brought us several nice chunks of specialty cheese. They're proud of their dairy heritage in Wisconsin so there are websites boasting about the 18,000 dairy farms and 126 cheese plants. No surprise the state beverage is milk. To west coast daily wine drinkers, it sounds like a totally wholesome place. But of course Wisconsin is famous for good beer, too. Thanks, Nick.

Wisconsin leads the nation in cheese production and makes about a quarter of America's cheese. I read that the average American eats an astonishing 31 pounds of cheese a year. Just under a pound a week. There are American cheese haters of course, so some people eat much more. If you think about it, that's also an astonishing amount of calories.

There are tons of processed cheeseburger/pizza cheese made-- but much smaller amounts of real cheese. Might as well have the good stuff. This cheddar Nick brought was aged 12 years. What does a 12-year-old piece of dairy taste like? Smooth and sharp, of course-- but not moldy or strong like Roquefort.


Very dense and tasty-- like our local Tillamouk cheddar on steroids.