Real Cheese

Mario Ventura knows something about traveling and a lot about cheese. "This place has been here since I was a child. And when I was a child and when we first moved to Indiana. When my parents moved to Indiana..this was always a stop. We always came here."

Mario is talking about a place that looms large along interstate 94 south of Milwaukee. The Mars Cheese Castle has been the place to stop for the past 60 years.

Mario Ventura's parents started the business in 1948. He's in charge now. The Cheese Castle is one stop shopping for everything cheese. As Mario Says, "Wisconsin Cheese is a keynote to our success because we produce probably the best and more plentiful cheeses in the United States of America."

It's hard to imagine any other place defined by cheese as much as Wisconsin. After all, "America's Dairyland" is the state's motto! But just try finding out why.

What is it about Wisconsin cheese that makes it taste so good? Cheese Castle customer Heidi Gross says, "Whenever we travel outside the state nobody says, oh you have great cranberries or you have great fishing, have great sunrises. What they say is 'you are from Wisconsin? You have the greatest cheese around'."

Those are words Kris Heise likes to hear, considering she helps run Beechwood Cheese in Beechwood, Wisconsin. This is just one of more than one-hundred cheese-makers across the state. From cheese factories to cheese shops, our mission to find out what's behind this cheese fascination takes me to "Real Cheese Place" in Janesville, Wisconsin. Roger Schumacher started out making cheese in the 1960's. He doesn't make it himself anymore but he still sells it and has been for almost 30 years. "Some like it mild. Some like it strong. Some like it stinky." Roger keeps his stinky cheese in the back: Limburger, Schmearbrick, Beer Kaese. None of those are his favorites. He's more likely to savor and sample some of the other dozens of varieties of cheese in the front of his story. Ask him what makes it taste so good and he points to the makeup of the minerals in the soil, "It's the limestone. In the ground. The cows eat the grass. And gives the flavor of the milk. I guess, and the cheese."

Back at Beechwood, Mark Heise is hard at work. It's 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday and there are cheese curds to make. The first Saturday of every month is curd day here at Beechwood. Customer Brian Zelenikar is one of the customers, "I bought 8 pounds today. No I'm not buying for myself. I'm the cheese connection for other people. I'm riding a motorcycle so I throw it in the backpack and I'm on my way."

Beechwood will sell upwards of 2-thousand pounds of fresh, warm cheese curds...in one day! Mark Heise has a background in cheese, "It pretty much was our family's passion for years and years. My dad graduated from high school in Plymouth in 1938 and immediately went into making cheese in a little rural town called Belgium, Wisconsin. I came over here for years and years. My first job was 25 cents a day taking the bricks off the brick cheese."

After owning the company for 30 years, Mark and Kris Heise sold the Beechwood to Mark Rolison two years ago. His first executive decision: keep Mark and Kris running the day to day operation. Mark Rolison says it's a good time to be in the cheese business in Wisconsin. And Beechwood is banking on the company's 114 year history to get customers to try their cheese. They want folks sampling their cheddar in retail markets large and small. Mark Rolison says, "Very finicky customers. I always equate selling cheese in Wisconsin like selling Merlot in Napa Valley. You have to be a step above."

And at Beechwood, they specialize in flavored cheeses. Start with some quality Wisconsin cheese then start adding stuff and soon you've got: Chicken soup for example. Mango Pena with Monterey Jack and jalapenos. Olive pimento and "Screaming Mimi Habanero Jack" - that one has a kick. The climate, the limestone, the tradition. What makes great Wisconsin cheese may still be a bit of a mystery but if you show up in America's Dairyland, have some cheese.

The Cheesy Facts
You may like cheddar, Swiss or even limburger, but it's mozzarella that also reigns at the top of the American cheese list. That's because Pizza is one of the country's favorite food snacks. Hold the anchovies!