cheese

Successful Entrepreneurship Takes a Village

What do FedEx, AirBnB, and Evernote have in common? We can all agree they are hugely successful companies. They’re also companies from which most of us benefit on a regular basis. Interestingly, all three also were once startups on the verge of collapse when they were saved by investors who cared enough to lend a hand. So when I heard one of my favorite specialty cheesemakers, Landmark Creamery, needed a hand, I immediately donated to Go Fund Me and I then went shopping for three of its cheeses.

Landmark Creamery is a labor of love for Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates. Since 2014, “the Anna’s,” as they’re known, have been churning, and rubbing, and aging small batches of cheese made from local, small, family-owned dairy farms. You can find their products online, and at Madison area specialty stores, co-ops and restaurants. Two years ago they opened their own retail shop in the quaint village of Paoli, where they sell not only their own cheeses but also those of other Wisconsin cheesemakers. Coincidentally, in the next few weeks you can find them featured on PBS’s Wisconsin Foodie.

So, it seems Landmark Creamery has recently found itself in a bit of a bind. According to the Go Fund Me page, the ladies lost over 1,000 pounds of cheese after their cold storage company threw it out. The Anna’s had fallen behind on payments and owed the company $1,000. According to the page, they told the company owner they would pay as soon as possible, but the owner declared the space abandoned and threw away the cheese. The cheese, valued at $20,000, is a hand-crafted product needing six months to age, so it’s not easily replaced.

Seeing Both Sides of the Cheese Wheel

As a small business owner, I understand the importance of being paid. The storage facility provided a necessary service to Landmark Creamery and it was right to expect the agreed-upon compensation. You bet I’m all about responsibilities and holding up one’s end of the bargain.

But I also remember those startup days, struggling to succeed and stretching money to pay the bills. I appreciate all the help I received back then (my husband’s support was and still is a necessary component to me staying in business). I firmly believe when we uphold one another, we all stand stronger; that supportive action today generates positive reactions tomorrow. Kudos to the Culinary Ladies Collective for setting up the Go Fund Me for Landmark Creamery. This network of female chefs, food and beverage producers, growers and artisans is an example of how we go far when we go together.

I’m also a believer in communication. In Adunate’s 14-year running, I’ve only had a few clients fail to pay me on a timely basis. Those who respected me enough to talk to me about it are still my clients today. Those who ghosted me, well, you can bet I now refuse to work with them. According to the Go Fund Me page, Landmark Creamery had just made a payment on the balance and had communicated with the storage facility they would pay the rest as soon as possible. If this was the case, I just can’t see how destroying $20,000 of product for a $1,000 bill was beneficial to anyone, including the owner of the storage facility.

Be Part of the Village

Folks, if you’re a fan of small businesses and local foods, if you love Wisconsin specialty cheese, if you have a minute and a few extra dollars, please consider supporting Landmark Creamery. You may very well be benefiting more people than you know, not to mention keeping some fantastic cheese in production!


Wednesday Webs: Summer’s Super Foods!

Dill growing in garden

This is such an exciting time of year. Each morning I go out to my garden and find the super food fairies have been hard at work during the night. We’ve had perfect garden weather so far—lots of rain a few weeks ago and now intensely hot sun. This beautiful dill is just biding it’s time, waiting for the pickles growing behind it to burst on to the scene. And they soon will. In just another week, we’ll be making dill pickles galore!

Visual communication is huge for marketing food. So are public relations, the media, and an overall emotional bond to delicacies we eat. Lately, I’ve found so much that supports this theory.

  • Here’s a case study for What We Eat and Why It Matters. Case studies are inordinately useful for managing the project, but they’re also educational for anyone looking to learn.

  • Earlier this month one of my favorite cheese companies, Crave Brothers, suffered a devastating blow when it had to voluntarily recall three of its specialty cheeses. This is devastating not only for them, but for the whole artisanal cheese industry. I’m watching with interest in how they handle this PR crisis (so far, I think they’ve done well). I’ve worked with owner Charles Crave in the past, and he and his family are wonderful people. I know they’ll come back better than ever. In fact, I’ve ramped up buying their mozzerella and mascarpone—oh, so very good!

  • Speaking of pickles, did you know Wisconsin has a Pickle Bill? It allows food entrepreneurs to sell certain home-canned foods without a license. Perhaps you’ve always dreamed of your own home-based food business? Be sure to check out your state’s Cottage Food Laws.

  • My client, Rock County Historical Society, is well into its year-long Breadbasket: Seed to Spoon Exhibit. It’s a fascinating celebration of the county’s culinary history!

Wednesday Webs: June is Dairy Month!

homemade yogurt

It’s June Dairy Month, one of my favorite culinary months of the year! Here in Wisconsin, being America’s Dairyland and all, this is a big thing. Not only do I love dairy because of its food—oh, the cheese, the yogurt, the ice cream!—I also find it an interesting industry. And right now, marketing this industry is at an attention-getting crossroads.

Soil Sisters Farm Tour

Soi Sisters Farm Tour 2012

You’ve gotta love a guy who’s not too busy (or hung up on his manliness) to accompany his wife on a Soil Sisters Farm Tour. That was my husband this past weekend. We took a couple days off and headed to Green County, Wisconsin to see six family farms dedicated to local, sustainable agriculture.

All run by women.

Kinkoona Farm, Brodhead, WI

Australian native Suellen Thomson-Link and her three children have an interesting menagerie of sheep, aquaponics and garden produce on their Kinkoona Farm. Her ideas on permaculture are fascinating.

emu

Not only is he cute, he’s curiously friendly as all get out. Joylene Reavis raises up to 200 birds on her Sugar Maple Emu Farm. We learned of the many products for which emus are raised, and their most peculiar noises—males grunt and females ‘drum’!

Green County Barn Quilts

Green County is such a pretty area of the state. Amongst its rolling hills, you’ll find cheese, beer and barn quilts. I had to be quick on the draw as we zoomed past this barn (my husband may be secure in his manliness but he doesn’t slow down much on county highways)…

Green County Barn Quilts, WIsconsin

And this barn…

Barn quilts of Green County, Wisconsin

And this one…

Country church in Green County, Wisconsin

And this countryside church.

Inn Serendipity, Monroe, WI

Lisa Kivirist features vegetarian cuisine from garden-grown ingredients at her Inn Serendipity, an eco-conscious bed and breakfast. I loved the repetition of this granary’s windows, which is now a solar-heated, straw bale greenhouse.

Grassroots Farm, Monroe, WI

Mother-daughter team Gail and Lindsey Carpenter run Grassroots Farm, a 40-acre, organic-certified CSA enterprise. The aroma inside this old barn was glorious!

(Oh, by the way, did you know many health insurance companies offer reimbursement for CSA membership fees? It’s called paying for good health instead of bad health.)

Baby chicks from Grassroots Farm

Soil Sisters come in all ages. This lovely, young marketeer could tell us the breed of each chick and what color eggs it will someday lay. If I didn’t already grow my own food, I’d have signed up for a CSA share right then and there!

Very fun weekend!

Wednesday Webs: June Dairy Month!

 

Fromagination Cheese

June is Dairy Month and what better way to celebrate than with some good Wisconsin cheese! I stepped into Madison’s Fromagination yesterday and was like a kid in a candy store. Artisan cheese, beer, wine, chocolate…what more does a woman need?

Here are some of my favorites:

  • Pleasant Ridge Reserve, by Uplands Cheese: This cheese was featured on the Wisconsin Foodie show. It’s every bit as good as they said!
  • Dunbarton Blue, by Roelli Cheese Haus: Straight blue cheese is too strong for me (I’m a whimp) but this blend is so-o-o delish! It’s a cheddar cheese laced with just enough blue to give it intrigue. Here’s an interesting article on how they do it.
  • I wrote about Crave Brother’s successful marketing here, but that’s not all they do. They’ve come up with a heavenly mascarpone that makes the best desserts!
  • Brunkow Cheese Curds: A Saturday morning stroll around the capitol square at Madison’s Dane County Farmers Market isn’t complete unless you’re dipping into a bag of squeeky-fresh cheese curds!
  • Kraemer’s Sharp Cheddar: Good ol’ cheddar cheese may be a Wisconsin stand-by, but it’s one you can’t do without. Aged 3 years, 5 years or 8-10 years, they’re all oh-so-tasty.
  • Want the slice on Wisconsin cheese? Check out this cheesy-in-a-good-way blog.

Mascarpone Does More Than Make a Good Tiramasu

tiramisu

Yesterday I had an interesting phone conversation with Alise Sjostrom. She’s the marketing coordinator for Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese and she’s doing an amazing job promoting their products on the internet. In fact, solely because of her recent Facebook comments, I bought one of their gift packages for my parents.

I also made this awesome tiramisu.

Let me momentarily digress to the tiramisu. I know this isn’t food photography at its best, but this is all that was leftover from my dinner party the night before. Let me tell you, the tiramisu was awesome. I made it from a recipe on this Italian Dessert blog. I even made my own lady finger cookies, also from the blog. Let me repeat, it was awesome.

Certainly much of my tiramisu success came from using an award-winning mascarpone cheese, which takes me back to Alise Sjostrom and the Crave Brothers.

Alise joined Crave Brothers this past year and has really taken off with their social media marketing.

“Crave Brothers had started social media before, but didn’t use it to its full potential,” says Alise. “I previously worked for a cheese company in Vermont where much of my time focused on social media and website management.

“Social media has given Crave Brothers’ marketing more bulk. We’ve simply added it to the marketing we already were doing. The only cost has been time. I have the tools to have it (the internet) up all the time and I work social media in throughout the day while I’m doing other things.”

I like Alise’s approach. She wants to educate people on agriculture and cheese, and she wants to bring them together with her posts on Facebook, Twitter, a blog and an e-newsletter, all of which draw people to their website.

“My focus is to be very real,” says Alise. “Real time on what’s really happening. I feel people want to connect with us and know what we’re doing. They love to talk about food and are looking for ideas. Social media makes it easier, since otherwise it would be difficult because we don’t have our own retail store.”

She’s right. People do want to connect. We want to feel like we’re “part of the club.” Last week I felt just that when I commented to Crave Brothers’ Facebook post about tiramisu.

And then I went out and bought two tubs of their mascarpone cheese.

Need help with your social media? Writing your blog or your e-newsletter? Drop me a line!

The Elusive Dankers Dairy Bottle

Lehman's Dairy, Jefferson, WI

June is Dairy Month so I’m dedicating this week’s Wednesday Webs to the dairy industry and the delicious joy it brings to our lives.

Here in Wisconsin we celebrate June Dairy Month in a big way. We have Dairy Breakfasts on the Farm with polka bands, baby animals and tractors. We have the Hoard Historical Museum’s National Dairy Shrine, where we celebrate the past, present and future of dairy farming. And, of course, we have cheese—lots and lots of cheese. Here’s a map of cheesemakers throughout the state. Many of them are small, privately owned dairies and visiting them is as fun as visiting a winery or brewery.

So here’s to June Dairy Month and all the tasty treats that go with it!

Here’s also to Jan, whose birthday it is today. Jan is my father’s wonderful wife and she is of dairy farm heritage. Dankers Dairy, that is, a farm in Saginaw County, MI, that years ago bottled its own milk.

In bygone days, dairies bottled their milk in reusable bottles embossed or painted with their name and location. Nowadays, these are hot items for collectors (hey, there’s even a National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors). I have one lone bottle from Lehman’s Dairy in Jefferson, WI.

Jan, on the other hand, has quite a few. But there’s one bottle she doesn’t have—one she’d love to have more than any other.

She doesn’t have a Dankers Dairy bottle.

Anyone know of one? Give me a holler and I’ll pass it along.