Culture Magazine

14 culturecheesemag.com BEGINNINGS 2024 VOICINGS Culture Magazine (CM): First, I want to say congratulations on your recent centennial celebration. Keeping a business running for 100 years is impressive, and even more so considering you've been able to keep it in the family. Joey has recently taken over as Vice President of Operations. Can you tell me about what each of your roles are currently? Joey: I'm essentially managing the entire company, and we're a small business so I wear many different hats. Cheesemaking is the primary thing we do here, but we also have a cheese retail store, milk receiving, packaging, and an online website for mail orders. Brick and Colby, our primary cheeses, are both Wisconsin originals, so we're proud of carrying on that tradition. We also make Matterhorn Alpine cheddar— we're really proud of that one because we created our own recipe that is different from every other cheddar. And we started making butterkäse in January 2023. That's a very traditional German/Swiss cheese that not many people make, so I figured we would try to tackle that as well. That's pretty much what we do in a nutshell. We're small and want to stay that way so we can produce a quality product. CM: What about you, Joe? Do you still have an official role in the company, or are you there in an unofficial capacity? Joe: Well, I sleep till noon. I'm semi-retired, I go up north to our cabin a lot, but I bring my laptop along and am always a reference for consulting. And I am here quite a bit this time of the year since it's the busiest. So yes, I'm still here. These guys are coming out with new cheeses. I know a lot of people in the industry, so I put them in touch with people they could talk to and get starters and bacterias that they need to make these different cheeses. But they do the actual cheesemaking and experimenting. I'm just kind of in the background. CM: When did you start working in the family business? Joe: I started when I was six years old. I'd walk into the plant and my dad and my uncle Ralph would say, "You're the guy we're looking for." They had jobs for me already. And I think I was the kid in the family who was probably the most interested at that point. And I've been working there ever since. CM: Joe, you're a certified Master Cheesemaker in Colby, Brick and cheddar, right? Joe That's correct. I was one of the first back in the late nineties. CM: What goes into getting that certification? Joe: You must be licensed for 10 years in making a type of cheese, and then you have to take required courses. There are a lot of people making cheese that are taking pHs and checking the consistency at a specific time, putting it into brine at a specific time, but they don't know the science and chemistry behind it. So, they go to the Master Cheesemaker Program to learn the science behind it—what makes the cheese do what it does. I think there are only around 60 Masters out of 1,100 licensed cheesemakers in the state. Those guys go back to the plant and share their information with the people there. It's a win-win for Wisconsin. There's only one other country that has a program like that, and it's Switzerland. CM: Joey, do you have your sights set on becoming a Master Cheesemaker like your father? Joey: I do. I'm definitely working toward becoming a Master Cheesemaker. I think I have most of the courses done, but I just have to wait two or three more years before I can actually apply to the program. I think I would become a Master in Brick first and then go from there. CM: Widmer's is the only cheesemaker in the country that still uses real bricks in the make process. What inspired this dedication to tradition, and how does it affect the cheese's flavor or quality? Joe: This is more of a touch, feel kind of thing. These people are right at the vats. It's not—and I'm not cutting on machine-made cheese, there are a lot of good ones out there—but it's actually hands-on, artisan, authentic, that type of thing. And it makes a higher- quality product, just like going back to family recipes being carried down. If you start taking shortcuts or adding different, cheaper ingredients, you don't end up with the same product. We're so authentic that we're using the same bricks my grandfather used, and we follow the same recipes. When I was a kid, the hooks and everything were wooden—everything is stainless steel now. But we're using the same recipes. CM: Widmer's still uses the same 12,000-square-foot facility that Joe's grandfather bought in 1922. I read on your website that the facility has been "grandfathered in" on certain things—open vats, real bricks, and wooden curing racks—due to its age. Can you elaborate on what that means and how that impacts your decision to expand? Joe: The original cheesemaking part of the building—the open store and cement salt brines, which we fiberglassed—all of that is stuff of the past, and we're grandfathered in with that. But we have expanded quite Baby John Widmer (Joe's father) in a wooden cheese box.

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