‘It’s been a lifetime passion’: Small Wisconsin cheesemaker wins big award

KEWAUNEE COUNTY, Wis. –– A small Northeast Wisconsin cheesemaker just lately made a giant splash on a world stage.

Ben Shibler and his group at Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese in Kewaunee gained first place for string cheese and third place for cheese curds and mozzarella whips on the 2022 American Cheese Society Awards.

Shibler mentioned his ardour for cheese runs deep.

“I like it,” Shibler mentioned. “It’s been the longest relationship of my life.”

He mentioned he’s meticulous about every step of the method.

“The cheesemaker’s ability on the vat is essential that they regulate and so they can discover these little issues,” mentioned Shibler. “If you happen to lower it softer or lower it firmer, regulate your prepare dinner temperature, primarily based off what the vat or the milk is telling you. We have now to make little changes to get the cheese curd or that string cheese to be simply the identical because the final time the client purchased it.”

Their strategy has confirmed efficient because the group retains incomes worldwide recognition for its work.

“For a small farmstead cheese operation like this, a family-run institution, that’s large,” Shibler mentioned. “There’s firms from a few totally different international locations that enter this contest, hundreds of entries, a few of the greatest cheesemakers and cheese firms on this planet.”

“It’s nearly priceless with the ability to win certainly one of these contests after which the ethical enhance for the group. With the ability to shine on the world stage like that with simply three to 4 staff here’s a actually huge deal,” he mentioned. “It’s a giant enhance.”

Shibler added he nonetheless remembers the second he discovered his group was a winner.

“It was superior,” he mentioned. “I used to be tremendous excited. I used to be truly watching dwell on Fb as a result of I couldn’t go this 12 months. It was kinda like watching the Tremendous Bowl and watching your group win.”

He mentioned there’s one factor that makes his group’s cheese stand out from the big discipline of competitors.

“Our solely secret and it’s probably not a secret, we inform everyone who comes and takes a tour, is the freshness of the milk,” he mentioned. “The milking parlor is about seventy toes away. Each day once we make cheese once we are available in and we pump the milk straight over from the parlor. 90 seconds after the cows are milked that very same milk is flowing into our pasteurizer. We begin the cheesemaking course of proper there. We’re not higher at making cheese than another firm. There’s firms which were round for over 100 years, they actually know what they’re doing. We simply have a premium superior freshness in our milk as a result of we’re utilizing it so quick.”

Shibler mentioned profitable feels nice. After 16 years making cheese, he’s attributable to graduate from the Wisconsin Grasp Cheesemaker Program in April. Shibler mentioned his within the cheesemaking enterprise for the lengthy haul.

“I feel regardless of the place my profession takes me, I’m all the time going to be doing one thing with cheese and dairy,” he mentioned. “It’s been a lifetime ardour, and I don’t see that altering till after retirement perhaps.”