How did a Dutch woman come to be making old-school, raw-milk, artisan Gouda in the middle of Wisconsin? In an interview with Food 52 a couple of years ago, cheesemaker Marieke Penterman shared what the Associated Press once called her “fairy-tale farm story”:
I grew up on a 60-cow dairy farm in the Netherlands. Holland is very small, it fits about five times in the state of Wisconsin, and we have about 18 million people, which makes [farming] quite challenging and very expensive. So in order for [my family] to continue dairy farming, we wanted to look abroad, and where else can you go if you love cows and good cheese? Wisconsin, of course.
I’ve [always been] very proud to be a dairy farmer here in Wisconsin, but after a little while, I was missing my good kaas from Holland. I would go to the store here, and I would find wonderful, beautiful cheeses, but I couldn’t find good Gouda. [I had a] crazy idea to start making [it] because we had good Wisconsin milk right here on the farm, and it seemed like a great idea. The only problem I had was that I did not know how to make cheese.
Today, Marieke and her husband, Rolf, have nearly 400 dairy cows in Thorp, about halfway between Minneapolis and Green Bay. She’s only the fourth woman in Wisconsin history to earn a Master Cheesemaker certification, and her Gouda has won so many awards, I long ago lost track.
I’m especially fond of Marieke’s extra-aged Gouda, which takes two years of maturing to bring out the creamy, caramelly notes that I love. And if you’re lucky, you’ll come across some of those crunchy crystals of tyrosine that form in cheeses aged over two years! The Chicago Tribune calls Marieke’s extra-aged Gouda “unusually creamy with tiny melt-in-your-mouth crystals.” It’s great with fresh fruit, the Concord grapes on the market right now in Michigan, top-quality toasted nuts, Spanish membrillo (quince paste), or Mail Order’s Spiced Pecans.
