Swiss-consin

This week was spent in various smaller Wisconsin towns. One being the very Swiss, New Glarus. Some fun things to see and do this trip. From the sign above, you can see that Green County is the hot bed of Limburger cheese development -- surprisingly, the town didn't smell like one might anticipate. Here's a little information on Nickolaus Gerber the man recognized with creating cheese farmer cooperatives.

Nickolaus Gerber developed a cooperative venture between farmers and the markets known as a cheese factory. Cheese making had been practiced by individual farmers, usually in their own kitchens, but Gerber is credited with developing this practice into an industry.

Born in 1836 in Canton, Berne, Switzerland, Gerber came to Oneida County, New York in 1857 where he learned cheese making. This is where he stunk things up and introduced the manufacture of Limburger. He moved from New York to Wheeling, Illinois where he opened his next factory, but that proved unsuccessful.

Gerber then moves to Green County, Wisconsin where he set up his first Limburger factories in Section 33, Town of New Glarus in 1868 on the Albrecht Baebler farm and was followed the next year by a Swiss cheese factory on the farm of Dietrich Freitag in Section 1, Town of Washington. He was soon operating several more factories and marketing cheese for the other cheese makers.


New Glarus Brewing Company
Also visited on this trip was the New Glarus Brewing Company, located in New Glarus, Wisconsin. I toured the old brewery, the new hilltop facility should be open shortly and looked beautiful. This is a world-class operation that was started in June 1993 by Dan and Deborah Carey, with the first brew in November 1993 - the fastest microbrewery start-up ever.

I took the free self guided audio tours of their brewing facilities on the corner of Cty. Rd W and Hwy 69 in New Glarus. During the tour, you can see where the beers are made and if you care to, you can enjoy taste testing in the gift shop after your tour. The gift shop offers a variety of beer available for purchase and also clothing, steins and other logo item merchandise.

The New Glarus Brewing company has been recognized as best brewmaster in 2003, 2005, and 2006 and the New Glarus Brewery was named Best Brewery in America in 2003, 2005, and 2006 at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. New Glarus Brewery was also named Wisconsin's Best Brewery in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999 by the readers of Wisconsin Trails Magazine.

The Brewery was started in 1993 and is famous for Spotted Cow, Totally Naked, Fat Squirrel, and many more interesting craft beers. You can learn more about this brewery at http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/

Additional New Glarus Sites
The Swiss Historical Village Museum which opened in 1942, now has 14 different buildings that tell the story of New Glarus. Beginning in the Hall of History, visitors learn about how nearly 100 Swiss immigrants left their homeland in Switzerland to begin a new life here in Wisconsin in 1845.

The Swiss Historical Village Musuem's different buildings focus on each part of New Glarus' history. There's an authentic 1850s log cabin, an 1890s cheese factory, a one room school house, a fire house, a print shop, a blacksmith shop, general store, and a replica of the town's first log church.

Walk-ins and group tours are welcome. The museum is located at 612 Seventh Ave. just a short walk from New Glarus' downtown shopping and restaurants. The museum is open May-October from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. To learn more about the museum visit www.swisshistoricalvillage.org

New Glarus is also the starting point for the 23-mile long Sugar River Bike Trail, and New Glarus Woods State Park is less than a mile from the edge of the village. So whether your tastes run to shopping all day, polka-ing all night, hiking, biking, golfing, or paying a visit to lovingly maintained local museums you'll find plenty to do in New Glarus.

Be sure to stop into the Chamber of Commerce and pick up a coupon book to use at local businesses too.


Links:
http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/ New Glarus Brewery
http://www.swisstown.com/ Swiss Town
http://www.swisshistoricalvillage.org/ Swiss Historical Village
http://www.greencounty.org/communities.iml Green County Wisconsin Communities Sphere: Related Content