Eau Galle Cheese Factory, Wisconsin

Howard and I really enjoy driving through rolling hills and wide open country and we especially liked the center part of Wisconsin with its many dairy farms on lush green acres of land dotted with black and white Holstein cows.  Maybe it reminds me of some parts of the English countryside.

We were very fortunate to have had a privileged private tour of the Eau Galle (pronounced O Galley) cheese factory with Bob, after I’d called a couple of days before to ask if we could take a tour. They no longer do tours but he kindly offered to show us around himself.  Bob is the Plant and Office Manager and he knew the factory inside out and we knew how proud he was of it as he explained the process of cheese making as we passed the enormous, shining, stainless steel tanks that hold thousands of gallons of milk and cream, saw tanks of curds being separated from the whey and gazed into the huge drying room of parmesan cheese wheels, each weighing about 22 lbs and watched the man whose job it was to turn each one and test them for moisture content. 

They use 500,000 pounds of fresh milk each day five days a week and must use the milk within three days of delivery although Bob told us that most of the milk is processed the same day and is constantly tested for quality assurance. Cheese is also sold according to age, texture and strength of flavor. They produce “over 9 million pounds of Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheese each year, including some organic”. 

Eau Galle Cheese Factory, Durand, Wisconsin

The history of the factory and founding of it by Leo Buhlman, whose son now operates it, is well written on their web site where they also have a mail order catalog of an amazing array of cheeses and gifts boxes. We spent some time after our tour in the extraordinary gift shop where they sell cheeses from around the world and delightful craft and Christmas items which are also shown in their online brochure. By gosh it was hard to choose but we didn’t leave without purchasing some of their own parmesan and asiago cheeses.  

We also picked up a guide of the varieties of cheeses that are made in Wisconsin and we counted 33.  This very useful brochure shows glossy photos of each type of cheese with a description of the taste and how it can be used.

It was only after we left that I realized I hadn’t taken a single photo of our tour or of Bob or written down any of the exact details and amazing statistics that he had related to us of the whole process of cheese making.  What a shame.  No wonder that theirs is one of the finest, family owned and operated cheese factories in the state of Wisconsin.