10-14-13

At long last, we made it to Monroe.  It’s located in Green County, the heart of cheese-making country.  Appropriately, our first stop was the National Historic Cheesemaking Center, the ONLY one in the country. We enjoyed a tour of the museum, formerly a train depot where they shipped cheese all over the country.

  

We learned the many steps involved in making cheese and the equipment used.  We then went to the Imobersteg Cheese Factory

outside to see the working cheesemaking equipment. Many farms had such a building on site since they had no way to keep the milk cold before processing. On the 2nd Saturday in June they have a cheesemaking festival to show people how cheese is made. when it’s done, we can taste it!  We hope to go next year.

There was a caboose outside too, and the docent let us go inside.

We had a great time here, but we were hungry!  On the recommendation of the fine guides here, we went to the Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern downtown.  They are quite the busy place, and one of the only places you can get Limburger cheese.  We couldn’t resist a picture with the character outside 🙂 Their menu is simple but good. Great grilled cheese and chili on a cool fall day.

After lunch, we went to the historic courthouse. They have a self-guided tour on the 2nd floor, and a history room.

You can also put on a judge’s robe and pretend to be a judge, a great photo-op!

We had a great visiting Monroe, we will be back many more times for their festivals and events throughout the year!

Related articles

• Wisconsin cheese trail: Top spots for dairy lovers (usatoday.com)
• History of Cheese (carolomcfaddenblog.wordpress.com)
• How to…Make your own cheese (eleanorross1blog.wordpress.com)
• How 17th-Century Fraud Gave Rise To Bright Orange Cheese (wnyc.org)
• Kraft’s New Natural Cheese Dyes Were the Key Ingredient in a 17th Century Scam (blogs.smithsonianmag.com)