Oser Communications Group

22 The Cheese Guide BY LORRIE BAUMANN Widmer's Cheese Cellars is in the midst of a plant expansion that will increase the area devoted to its growing mail order business as well as boost its compliance with the ever-tightening safety net of regulations designed to protect Americans from food-borne illness. Changes in the food safety regulations mean that the company will have to discontinue its long-standing practice of inviting guests into its cheesemaking facility. "It hurts business," says Joe Widmer, "One of the reasons people like to come here is that they like to see how cheese is really made." Widmer's grandfather emigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1905 and bought the building in which Widmer's Cheese Cellars is now located in 1922. Ever since then, there's been a store at the front of the building, and curious customers have been invited to remove all their jewelry, don hairnets, wash their shoes in a sanitizing footbath and come on back to a viewing room for a video showing them how Widmer's very traditional brick, colby and cheddar cheeses are made and to have their questions answered by a real cheesemaker. "After doing this for almost 100 years, the government feels that we don't know what we're doing, and we have to stop now," Widmer says. "After making cheese almost 100 years, now they're going to tell us how to make a safe product." Widmer doesn't have a quarrel with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's desire to protect Americans from food-borne illness, but he does take issue with the FDA's apparent lack of respect for the tried-and-true care with which his family has been making safe cheese for nearly a century. He took home from the American Cheese Society's annual Judging and Competition just this year a first place award for his Traditional Washed Rind Brick Cold Pack cheese spread, a third-place ribbon for his Washed Rind Brick Cheese and a second-place win for his Tradition Colby. "I do understand that the FDA is trying to make things safer for people, but it sure hurts smaller producers and traditional cheesemakers," he says. "We don't want to stray too much from the tradition and the authenticity because the product wouldn't be the same.... We're constantly striving to keep the quality up. We're always perfecting it more and more, but we're sticking with tradition and original products – that's our niche." The remodeling and expansion at the facility has allowed Widmer to add aging space for his cheddar cheeses and to increase the size of his mail order packaging area. "Mail order business has been increasing every year – as well as wholesale and the sales from the store," Widmer says. The next step will be to expand the size of the retail store and construct a glass wall between shop and creamery, so visitors can still see how the cheese is made. A video will show the whole process, and guests will still have the opportunity to talk to a cheesemaker and try samples of the cheese. "Who in their right minds is not going to communicate with their customers?" Widmer says. "We try to communicate with everybody as much as possible. My dad and my uncle never turned their back on a customer." For more information, visit www.widmerscheese.com or call 888.878.1107. at Widmer's Cheese Cellars

• Cover