The Uplands Cheese Story
Uplands dairy farm sits on top of Pleasant Ridge near what was the northernmost stretch of the original, Midwestern prairie. This area is known as the “Driftless” region of southwest Wisconsin because it is full of rolling hills and valleys. These formed over tens of thousands of years by rivers and streams. Its soils are ideally suited for supporting grazing animals with a diversity of grasses, legumes and wildflowers. Add to that some forty inches of rain a year, and it’s easy to see why there is such a strong tradition of small dairy farms here.
The farm spans 300 hilly acres, all of which are pasture, segregated into small paddocks. Each day the cows are moved to a different paddock so that they are always eating fresh grass and that the pasture isn’t overgrazed. This process produces healthy, flavorful milk and ensures that the grass will regrow in time for the next grazing.
Aside from a small amount of grain while they’re being milked, Upland farm cows only eat fresh pasture from spring through fall. Since the cows are milked seasonally, in time with the pastures, Upland offers two traditional, artisan cheeses: Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Rush Creek Reserve.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve is made with grass-fed milk in the summer months. It is an aged, alpine-style cheese like the coveted, alpage versions of Beaufort and Gruyere. Pleasant Ridge is the most-awarded cheese in American history, having won Best of Show in the American Cheese Society’s annual competition three times (2001, 2005 and 2010), and having also won the US Cheese Championships in 2003. It is the only cheese to have won ACS Best of Show three times, and the only cheese to have ever won both of the major, national cheese competitions. Rush Creek Reserve is produced in the fall when the cows’ diet begins to change from summer pasture to the winter’s dry hay. This rich milk is perfect for a cheese like Rush Creek, so soft and decadent that it’s often referred to as savory custard.
Each cheese is wrapped in spruce bark, which gives shape to the cheese and imparts a subtle woodsy flavor. Upland farm raises its cows on pasture for a multitude of reasons. The most enjoyable result of this style of farming is that grass-fed milk is so flavorful. This fact is known by many dairy farmers, and it used to be common knowledge to cheese makers back when most cows were fed on pasture during the summer months. Uplands Cheese is proud of flavors expressed by their land and their cows. The grass fed, raw milk flavors in the cheese can’t be replicated by ordinary milk.
