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September 23, 2024
KEWAUNEE COUNTY – When it comes to iconic foods, few things are as quintessentially Wisconsin as cheese curds.
These small, squeaky morsels are a beloved snack, celebrated for their fresh, mild flavor and unique texture.
A by-product of the cheesemaking process, cheese curds have evolved into part of Wisconsin’s rich dairy heritage.
For Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese, Sales Manager Cassie Wendt said cheese curds are part of their lifeblood – and an award-winning part at that.
At this year’s Wisconsin State Fair, Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese was named the 2024 Wisconsin State Fair Dairy Products Contest Blue Ribbon Winner (1st Place).
The winning flavored cheese curds were Ron’s artisanal hand-packed garlic & dill flavored colored cheddar cheese curds.
According to the Wisconsin Cheese organization (WisconsinCheese.com), artisan cheese is made primarily by hand, in small batches, incorporating many of the traditional techniques of the art of cheesemaking.
Wendt said Ron’s cheesemakers have more than 30 years of combined experience.
Because the cheese they produce is artisan cheese, she said they use all of their senses – touch, taste, sight, smell and sound – to make real-time adjustments based on what the cheese is telling them.
Wendt said they agitate the curds in whey to keep them from sticking together and to expel moisture.
Besides checking the consistency of the curd size, she said they pay extra close attention to getting that hand-crafted taste.
Wendt said it might come as a surprise, but every single ounce of artisan farmstead cheese Ron’s produces is hand-manipulated.
She said an artisan cheesemaker – such as Jessica Michiels, head cheesemaker at Ron’s – typically uses no machines and little to no mechanization.
Artisan cheese may also use a variety of milk and added flavorings, but Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese contains no preservatives.
In the case of Ron’s award-winning garlic and dill variety, Wendt said “we just took our regular cheese curds and added a little bit of garlic and dill.”
“We didn’t want to overdo it,” she said. “We scored 94.7 out of 100.”
Each entry, Wendt said, starts out with 100 points and deductions are made from there for a variety of things.
The Wisconsin State Fair Entry Office said cheese curds (flavored or unflavored) are judged on and have points deducted for the following:
- Flavor defects (45 points)
- Body and texture defects (30 points)
- Makeup and appearance defects (15 points)
- Color defects (5 points)
- Rind development defects (5 points)
Wendt said each entry is scored by two judges and their individual total scores are then averaged to determine the winner of each class.
She said what folks may not know, is the judging doesn’t happen during the actual fair.
Wendt said she sent the curds to the State Fair Entry Office in May 2024, as cheese competitions are held one to two months in advance of the state fair where the awards are officially given.
“You usually find out within a couple of days (of them getting the entry) if you won anything,” she said. “The Wisconsin State Fair Dairy Promotion Board sponsors this competition and then actually posts things live (from the state fair) throughout the day on Facebook as the winners are announced.”
Ron’s recipient of many awards over the years
Wendt said this is not the first time Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese has won top awards for its artisan cheese products.
“Last year, we won in the same category for our cheese whips,” she said. “Two or three years ago, we won for our regular cheese curds.”
Wendt said Ron’s mozzarella cheese whips took first place at the 2024 World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product contest as well.
In fact, she said Ron’s cheese whips have won multiple awards in recent years, including:
- 2023 World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest – second place in the Natural Cheese Snack class
- 2022 American Cheese Society Award – third place (also won first place for its string cheese)
- 2021-2022 World Cheese Awards – third place
- 2021 World Dairy Expo contest – won second place
Other Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese products have also been awarded recognition.
A complete list is available at ronscheese.com.
Not bad, Wendt said, for a company that hadn’t even begun to make cheese until 2015.
From one small family business to another
Wendt said Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese was started in February 1976 by Ron and Marilyn Renard.
In 2005, the business was taken over by the Renards’ three sons.
Wendt said there was another family farm that had taken root in the area decades earlier and was growing during the years Ron’s was in operation: Pagel’s Ponderosa, which started in 1946 by Carl and Garnet Pagel.
Over the years, Pagel’s Ponderosa had expanded to 320 acres and 65 dairy cows and became known as Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy.
Having expressed his desire to take over the family business one day, Carl and Garnet’s son, John T. Pagel, the youngest of their seven children, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Farm Short Course program.
When Carl retired, John purchased the farm from him.
According to Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy’s website (pagelsponderosa.com), John’s focus for the farm included expansion – more specifically having a cheese plant on the farm.
Rather than starting one from scratch, he looked for one already in existence that had a good reputation and a dedication to wholesome products.
With that in mind, Wendt said John approached Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese and, after some negotiation, the Renards – whose sons had run the business for nine years at that point – decided to sell to him.
The following year, in 2015, she said Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese began making cheese on Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy’s farmland in Kewaunee – something they’d never done before.
“Prior to that, Ron’s Cheese had never made cheese – they only converted and made cheese spreads, as well as did packaging,” Wendt said. “But, from 2015 until now, we’ve been making cheese. We’ve also been pushing the fact that we are a true farmstead operation. Everything is made on the farm.”
Now under the direction of Bryan Pagel, Wendt said Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese and Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy have grown significantly, and are owned and operated under the umbrella of Pagel Family Businesses.
Today, the dairy farm is Wisconsin’s largest family-owned dairy farm with between 5,500-6,500 dairy cows in one facility, 8,500 acres of cropland and more than 100 employees.
They milk 535 cows per hour in two milking parlors – one rotary with 72 stalls and the other is a double 20, meaning you can milk 20 cows on each side.
The rotary parlor – a type of cow merry-go-round – takes less than 7.2 minutes to make one revolution.
Pagel’s cows are milked three times per day, with each cow producing 10 gallons of milk per day; a total of nearly 500,000 pounds of milk a day.
With all that milk being produced, Wendt said a small percentage of it is used for Ron’s Cheese.
“All the milk that is produced at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy gets turned into cheese,” she said. “We only use about 10% of it. The rest is made into cheese for others.”
After the cheese is made, Wendt said it is taken to Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese retail store in Luxemburg – a space which is also used for cold storage and some packaging.
