THORP — Seven years ago at a cheese contest in Green Bay, Marieke Penterman and her husband, Rolf, sat down at a banquet without knowing a soul there.
As they spoke to each other, their accents tipped off a man nearby that they might be those Dutch people who had just earned a gold medal for the first batch of cheese they ever made commercially four months before.
“He said, ‘Are you guys from Thorp? Don’t you know you’re the talk of the conference?’ ” said Marieke Penterman, who had made the cheese with milk from the family’s farm in northwest Wisconsin.
Seven years later, Penterman and her family are still the talk of the cheese world in Wisconsin and beyond. Since that first award, Holland’s Family Cheese has taken the industry by storm, racking up top awards, racing to keep up with demand for products and opening a new creamery operation with the goal of making it a tourist attraction in a rural part of the state.
All because a savvy new immigrant to the state wanted to accomplish something before she turned 30.
As the World Championship Cheese Contest comes to Madison this week, Penterman is in a position to do something that hasn’t been done since 1988: bring a world championship to Wisconsin.
The last time the biennial contest was held, her smoked Gouda was one of 16 finalists out of 2,506 cheeses, and last March her “mature” Gouda took top honors out of 1,702 cheeses at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest in Green Bay. She jumped for joy, as did many people in Thorp, population 1,621, for the attention it would bring to the community.
“Marieke’s enthusiasm is contagious,” said Ken Monteleone, owner of Fromagination cheese shop on Capitol Square. “You can see the passion come through when she talks about what she’s doing and her plans for her business. She’s definitely a very driven woman who has some great ideas.”
The ideas range from new spices to mix into Gouda to ways to educate people about dairy farming. It all comes together at the new Holland’s Family Cheese facility that opened on the southern end of Thorp last month.
Cheese isn’t new to the Pentermans’ part of the state. Twenty-six miles to the east of Thorp is Colby, the town where Colby cheese was invented.
But Marieke Penterman has carved a niche with a cheese that’s familiar to her: Gouda, a creamy, nutty semi-hard cheese that is traditionally made in the Netherlands. Holland’s Family Cheese ages it anywhere from two months to two years, and adds flavors ranging from cumin and fenugreek to red wine and burning nettle.
Doing it for herself
The cheeses bear the name of their maker, Marieke (pronounced mah-REE-kah).
“It’s truly authentic, and it’s local,” said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.
Penterman, 37, became a cheesemaker almost by happenstance, although she had a dairy background. She grew up on a dairy farm, and was a farm inspector with a degree in dairy business. But one night in 2002, a friend of hers called and asked her to come over for a cup of coffee. It was Rolf Penterman, who was about to join his brother in a dairy operation far away.
“He said, ‘You’ll have to come quickly because we found this beautiful farm in Thorp, Wisconsin, and otherwise you’ll never see me again,’ ” she said. “It was very dramatic.”
Marieke asked Rolf if she could come and help him out for a week or so, and three months later she did just that. They hadn’t been dating back home, Marieke said, but she definitely liked the guy.
“I thought, ‘If he comes and picks me up, I’ll tell him how cute he is. If his partner comes and picks me up, forget about it, I’ll just do my work,’ ” Marieke Penterman said. “He didn’t pick me up, but we worked it out later.”
A year and a half later, Marieke returned for good. The Pentermans married and began their family with the birth of twin girls. Despite the girls being the first of five children, Penterman became restless.
“I wanted to do something for myself before I turned 30, and the clock was ticking,” she said.
The light bulb went off above Penterman’s head when she thought about how much she missed the cheese back home. In the land of cheese, she missed the kind she loved most.
“You grow up with certain foods and you’re just used to it, and I had a hard time adjusting to other cheeses,” she said.
Penterman returned to the Netherlands to learn to make Dutch Gouda. She got her Wisconsin cheesemaker’s license. On Nov. 22, 2006, she made her first batch of commercially produced cheese. On Dec. 18, 2006, the Pentermans’ retail store opened.
Ten days later, Marieke Penterman turned 30. It has been nonstop ever since.
Teaching about dairy
Holland’s Family Cheese now makes 40 20-pound wheels of cheese a day. All the Gouda comes from the same recipe, the differences come in how long wheels are aged and what zflavors are added. There’s now room to grow, and plans call for doubling the cheese production.
Expansion wasn’t the only reason the Pentermans wanted a new facility. Visitors were already coming to see their out-of-the way farm and creamery. When the Pentermans drove past a property for sale on the very southern end of Thorp, within the city limits just off Highway 29, they realized they could do something unique with it.
A creamery close to town could serve as an educational facility and a tourism draw for people to learn about cheese and dairy. Some residents were concerned about water and odor, but the majority supported the project.
“In reality, we’re a rural town surrounded by dairy farms and surrounded by cows,” said Thorp city administrator Randy Reeg. “Most people feel the project is going to bring good things to the community.”
The Pentermans got a conditional use permit granted the same week their mature (aged six to nine months) Gouda was named the best cheese in the U.S. They shut down operations at the old facility on Nov. 18 and started at the new one Feb. 24.
While the exterior and landscaping aren’t finished, much of the rest of the facility is up and running. The store is bringing in customers not just for Marieke Gouda but for products made by other Wisconsin cheesemakers and food businesses, Dutch groceries and souvenirs and even wooden shoes (in the form of slippers, refrigerator magnets and pen holders).
“I think this is going to tap into a new audience for us,” Reeg said, adding that most visitors to the area come for recreation such as snowmobiling or hunting.
The store is connected to the creamery, where people can watch cheesemakers at work and see the golden wheels of Gouda sit on Dutch pine boards where they are coated, flipped and aged. Upstairs, a conference room can host groups and a video will play that tells the story of dairy farming.
In a neighboring building, visitors can see 300 cows milked. The herd of brown Swiss, red and white Holstein and black and white Holstein is milked three times a day, and the morning milk is pumped directly into the creamery.
The product from the day’s other milkings is sold, creating a cash flow for the business beyond cheese.
Throughout the facility, signs will educate people about what’s happening there. Visitors can milk a fake life-size cow. They’ll also be able to sample wine and eat ice cream, which Penterman hopes to make one day, too.
“Those that were against us made us realize we need to have something where people can come and learn what happens at a dairy,” Penterman said. “Not every farmer has the opportunity to do that, but I bet most farmers would love to show you what they are doing. And if not, just come over here.”
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