Uplands Cheese Company - About Us - Makers of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, an artisanal cheese, Dodgeville, Wisconsin

Uplands Cheese is owned and operated by two families: Mike and Carol Gingrich and Dan and Jeanne Patenaude. We formed Uplands Cheese to produce and distribute a unique cheese that we developed using centuries-old techniques that originated in the alpine provinces of France. cow and calf

We started farming together in 1994 in order to farm on a larger scale and to work out effective methods of pasture management and seasonal calving; old methods that we feel are preferable to the high production, factory farm methods that have become the norm in the dairy industry.

We realized the milk we produced had unique flavor properties due to the fresh grasses, herbs and wildflowers that the cows graze. However in order to provide this unique, traditional style product to the public, we knew we had to produce and market it ourselves. Otherwise our milk would be pooled with the milk from conventional dairy farms and its special qualities would be diluted beyond recognition. So began the development of Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

We looked to those parts of the world where delicious cheeses are still made by hand only during the pasture season and using unpasteurized cows milk. After much experimentation and many tasting sessions with friends and neighbors, we developed the procedures that yield the treasure we offer under the label Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Pleasant Ridge Reserve Cheese

It is an original cheese reminiscent of French Gruyere style cheeses but made in an area of southwest Wisconsin known to its original settlers as Pleasant Ridge. We age the cheese in a cold room that is controlled to the same temperature and humidity as the limestone caves in southeastern France and we wash the rind with a brine solution containing the natural bacteria found in those same caves.

In this age of industrialized food production, we are proud to offer a hand-crafted product using ancient methods that produced flavor and quality that has been compromised away in the drive for mass production and labor efficiency. We hope you will like it too.