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From the Corner

Booth and Beyond

By David Jankoski
Posted 3/9/23

 

After competition on February 21-22, the 2023 U. S Championship Cheese was Europa, an Aged Gouda, made by Arethusa Farm in Bantam, Connecticut.  First runner-up was a Vintage Cupola …

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From the Corner

Booth and Beyond

Posted
By David Jankoski

  •  

  • After competition on February 21-22, the 2023 U. S Championship Cheese was Europa, an Aged Gouda, made by Arethusa Farm in Bantam, Connecticut.  First runner-up was a Vintage Cupola American Original Cheese, a hard raw milk cheese made by Door County Artisan Cheese of Egg Harbor, WI for Red Barn Family Farms in Appleton.  The second runner-up was a Medium Cheddar made by Dillon Sylla for Associate Milk Producers Inc. of Blair.   The Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, is the host of the biennial cheese, butter, yogurt and whey competition.  This event drew 2,249 entries from 197 dairy companies and cooperatives from 35 states. Wisconsin earned the most gold medals with 54 Best of Class finishes.  Entries from California took home nine gold medals and those from Idaho finished third with eight gold medals.  Among the top 20 finalist from Western Wisconsin were a Cheddar from Associated Milk Producers of Blair; a Parmesan from Schuman Cheese of Turtle Lake; a Pepper Flavored Monterey Jack from Associated Milk Producers of Jim Falls; and a Cello from Lake Country Dairy of Turtle Lake.  The event was held in Green Bay and was judged by 42 nationally renowned judges. Noticeably absent from the list of top 20 cheeses this year were cheeses produced in the immediate Thorp or Stanley area.  Both Marieke Gouda and La Grander’s have, or will soon have building projects that they are involved with, an indicator that they are both doing well as established businesses. There is no need to worry about them not being there when the palate signals a need for cheese!

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  • A few additional comments on the Blair cheese company, Associated Milk Producers, that finished as the second runner-up at the U. S. Championship Cheese Contest, recently held in Green Bay. While Dillion Sylla was named as the cheese maker of the wining Cheddar, he was quick to acknowledge that it was the dedicated employees who made the championship cheese. In fact, the Blair based factory makes about 300,000 pounds of medium cheddar daily.  Sylla is the plant’s supervisor of cheese making.

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  • While on the topic of cheese, we were in Eau Claire on Thursday, March 2, and had a few extra minutes so we made a stop at the new MariEke Gouda Cheese Shop, located in the former Pier One store building. The former Pier One has been divided into three business fronts, with the other two being a cookie store and a manicure business.  Marieke’s beautiful new store of course features a nice variety of Gouda cheeses, a case full of Nolechek’s Meats and a nice selection of food products that serve as appetizers or compliment appetizers.     

  •                                                                                              ***                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   It was a good read that Wisconsin will be getting $25.2 million, from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the funds having been a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was designated to address contaminants and forever chemicals, like polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The funding is part of the $2 billion allotted to states for source water treatment for pollutants. The announcement came from U. S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a member of the Senate Appropriation Committee, who previously secured funds to deal with polyfluoroalkyl substances in La Crosse and Rhinelander water.

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  • The Main Street Bounce Back Grant Program ended December 31, 2022.  West Central Wisconsin (Barron, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire Polk and St. Croix Counties) had 860 applications for funding, which came from the American Rescue Plan Act dollars.  The awards in total amounted to $8.6 million to help establish businesses on Main Streets throughout the state and nation after COVAID.  I am not personally aware of any Stanley businesses that took advantage of these dollars but I am aware of at least three businesses in Thorp that used the funding.  One hundred and five (105) Chippewa County businesses received $1,050,000 of this funding.  Clark County had 49 applications that were funded at $490,000.

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  • Did you know?  The average size farm in Wisconsin has stayed at 222 acres since 2019, when farm size gained a couple of acres.  According to the Department of Agriculture, Wisconsin had 64,100 farms in 2022, unchanged from 2021, but 700 fewer than in 2018.  Total land in farms last year was 14.2 million acres down about 100,000 acres since 2017.

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  • I recently received the Wisconsin County Unemployment Rates for December 2022..  Area numbers indicate very low unemployment rates in Chippewa (3.3%), Clark (2.3%) and Eau Claire (2.0%) Counties. These are not-seasonally adjusted.  By comparison, the not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the United States is 3.3% and in Wisconsin it is 2.3%.  Clark Counties annual average unemployment rate was 2.6%.

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  • I have followed the Clark Count half percent sales tax since its inception in 2016.  In 2016, it totaled $1,818,704.04 for the year.  At the end of 2022, it amounted to $2,815,275.93. The money is designated to reduce property taxes.

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  • I chuckled when I recently read that the Wisconsin DNR has started to perform prescribed burns on DNR properties throughout the state.  That is not going to be happening around this part of the state for some time, after our 12+ inches of snow we were recently gifted with. That snow should help keep the snowmobiles happy for at least a few more weeks.  And what a gift it was to the Birkie participants who participated on Saturday, February 25, in that challenging race. One participant recently told me that it is so satisfying to just finish the race.

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  • Smile time.  Clapping is literally hitting yourself cause you like something.  +++ Do dogs see police dogs and think, “Oh no, it’s the cops?” +++ Sign at a restaurant, “Eat here or we’ll both starve.” +++ 90% of a relationship is figuring out where to eat. +++ Signs in front of a restaurant: “We do not have WIFI. Talk to each other. Pretend it’s 1995.” * “Look down. If you’re wearing socks with sandals we are closed.”  +++ How did the hipster burn his tongue?  He sipped his coffee before it was cool. +++ I was addicted to the hokey pokey but I turned myself around! +++ “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” - Abe Lincoln +++ Old age comes at a bad time. +++ Don’t let aging get you down.  It’s to hard to get back up. +++ First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down. +++ At age 20, we worry about what others think of us … at age 40, we don’t care what they think of us … at age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all. +++ It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone. +++ Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest. +++ You know your getting older when you can pinch an inch on your forehead.

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