Cow to Cheese
OSSEO, Wis. – For Inga Witscher, she always knew that farming was her passion, but she recently discovered something else that brings her joy. She decided to cut out the middleman and start using the milk from her farm to make her own cheese on location.
At Inga Witscher’s farm in Osseo, it’s all about her cows. “They graze during the season on native pastures, clovers and beautiful grasses,” Wirscher said. She recently downsized her farm from 40 cows down to just 7 jersey cows. “The thing about Jersey’s too is they all have a unique personality,” she added.
No matter their personality, all 7 are doing their job. “They are doing really good too with milk production on grass, it’s just incredible,” Witscher said.
Each morning she milks the cows and their milk heads straight to the creamery where her dad is waiting to start making cheese. “And then we go through a whole cheddaring process, which is basically just getting all of the whey out of the cheese curds and then we process it,” she added. After they press the cheese it sits, aging to increase the flavor. “We really are kind of mimicking the British traditional cheddar,” Witscher said.
It’s just Inga, her dad, and a whole lot of cheese. “I didn’t know that I was going to love it this much to tell you the truth,” she said.
Not only is making curd fun, but it helps keep the farm afloat. “I had to rethink what I am going to do to be able to keep farming and one of those possibilities was turning my milk into a value-added product,” Witscher said. Satisfying the state’s craving and giving the farm a cheesy solution to satisfy Inga’s craving. “I never thought it was going to be this exciting, I never thought it was going to be this fulfilling and it’s just wonderful to be a part of that process,” she said.
After a fire burned their barn down in 2018, they rebuilt and Inga and her dad just started making cheese in June of 2020. Now it has aged enough to be ready to sell.
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Source: WEAU
