Cheese: The Making of a Wisconsin Tradition

This is a story of farmers, milk cows, dairy barns, and green pastures. It is the story of cheese makers who work their magic and turn milk into cheese. Jerry Apps narrates the history of the cheese-making industry in Wisconsin from its inception in the 1940s to the present. In his compelling yet conversational style, Apps documents how the daily lives of the early cheese makers and how Wisconsin became the nation’s number one cheese producer. The experiences come from the cheese makers, milk haulers, cheese graders and buyers, with stories of snow-blocked roads and frozen milk, of fish in the milk cans, wine in the cheese cellars, and the early resistance toward "western" cheese. Apps explains the many different kinds of Wisconsin-made cheeses (including those that originated or are exclusively made in the state), and discusses the current cheese producers, their factories and technology. Apps also includes his insights into the wedge-shaped foam headgear and other cheese phenomena.

Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of numerous articles and columns that have appeared in state and national publications. He is a former publications editor for UW-Extension, an acquisitions editor for the McGraw-Hill Book Company, and editor of a national professional journal.