The first question is both harder and easy to answer. Why cheese, really?
I love the life of agriculture. Very simply put, smelling and tasting cheese takes me right back to my childhood vacations on the Kansas wheat farms of my grandparents. I come from a long line of farmers, as do many across the mid-west, and I live for the breath of the different seasons and crops. In the spring, you can literally smell the dirt, all minerally and deep. You often get that earthiness in a great blue, like Bayley Hazen Blue.
And, summer winds in the farmland can be heady with the early green of young wheat and oats. Not unlike the scent and taste of Mike Gingrich's great raw cow milk cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
And smelling some cheeses transports me to the milkhouse of my grandpa's dairy barn, and milking time on my husband's family farm before the cows were sold.
And the cheeses I keep in my shop often come from communities like the one I live in. Many towns in Wisconsin are still small communities in the grand scheme of things. And many cheesemakers I've become acquainted with over the years come from communities of this size. Perhaps, 10,000 people down to 100 people. Yes, we know the names of the people in our neighborhood, the neighbors are just a bit more spread out.
Oh, and of course, the cheese itself in all its glory. Who can not be impressed to get a great and marvelous looking cheese and be the first person to look inside? I love the thrill. It's like my own private weekly Christmas.
The second question is easy. This is our hometown now, and my husband's family's hometown for 4 generations back. Dairy farmers. I like the commute, it's 4 miles from home. In the good months, I can even ride my bicycle to work. I haven't yet, but there's always spring!
