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CHEESE FACTORY LIST

Blue Mounds/Fahrni Cheese Factory

Blue Mounds Township
Picture
2987 Mounds Rd,
 Blue Mounds WI 53517
Picture
1890
Off site resource
Road View and Map
Operated: <1890 - >1949
Cheesemakers: Gottlieb Werren (1919-1941) won Dane Co. contest for cheese factories "Beautify Your Surroundings" 1926; Fred Fahrni
Cheese Types: Brick, Swiss
Patrons: Ed Christopher, Ben Odegaard, George Mickelson, Andrew Berge, Adolph Marty, Ed Helmeid, Sherman Frame, Dan Frame. Ronnie Fargo; Harold Berg Chase. Owner Roach. & Seeber, Waterloo.
Notes: Biennial report of the Dairy and Food Commissioner of WI: Blue Mounds 1901, 1906, 1909, 1913, 1922, 1930. Also a creamery in 1909. 

Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory- Architectural Style: Other Vernacular. Wall Material: Wood
.

Newspaper photographs and following article from Blue Mounds Historical Society.

The following letter was a recollection by Joyce Fahrni Ferrell, Leesburg, FL,  who lived in the West Blue Mounds Cheese Factory. Fred Fahrni, her father, was the cheesemaker.  He produced Swiss cheese at this time. 

With thanks for information contributed by Robert Mueller, Verona, WI, Vern Fahrni, Elizabeth, CO and Lyle Fahrni, Arena ,WI  2009. Blue Mounds Historical Society


 "The Whey Tank 
    You could smell it all over town.  One person said it smelled like stinky feet, another  described rotten or sour  milk, one recalled an odor similar to vinegar while most others just spit out the descriptive word “pee-ew!”   The odor being described was emanating from the outdoor  whey tank at the local cheese factory.
    The whey tank was on a pole framework so it stood above the wagons  or trucks which daily  hauled cans of milk to the factory.   The huge tank was made of 2 inch thick oak boards and shaped like a barrel  with an open top.  Insects of all kinds were  plentiful in the open whey tank. It was not uncommon for an occasional bird or rat to fall into the tank. 
    The boards of the all-important whey tank became saturated with aged, spoiled whey as new whey was added daily.  Occasionally it needed to be emptied completely because as the whey fermented the solids not only coated the inside of the tank, but settled to the bottom and sometimes plugged the dispensing  hose.
    Whey was dispensed by gravity. A long fat hose was attached to a hole at the bottom of the tank.  The hose end was placed into a milk can or other container and a rope was pulled to release the valve to let whey flow into a container in the vehicle below. 
    Whey, fresh and hot before it was pumped into the whey storage tank was delicious and nutritious; good to drink.  Each farmer was allotted approximately the same amount of whey as he had brought milk. Whey, a by product of making cheese from milk,  was an important food source for farm animals and farmers jealously guarded the amount of whey to which they were entitled. Pride in getting up early in the morning and milking cows was part of the culture of living the dairy farm  life.  Another reason to be early  delivering milk to the factory was all farmers wanted to be first to collect their whey while the supply lasted. It was possible the last farmer to deliver his milk to the factory each morning, would be shorted; the whey would be gone and so he would  not receive his full share.   
    One man  said that at their factory, his father, the cheesemaker,  invented a system whereby when the farmer had filled the cans with his allotted amount of whey, a bell would ring.  The others farmers waiting their turn at the tank would hear the bell and shame the first farmer into not taking more than his share.
    It was necessary for the cheesemaker to add some water to the whey to make it equal the amount of milk that was delivered.  By adding water at the source, it saved the farmer the work of hauling water to his feeding station on the farm. 
    The process of delivering milk and collecting whey,  also, served as a social event as farmers exchanged news of the day before going  home to breakfast and a long day of hard work. 
    In the first half of the 20th century, cheese whey was primarily used for mixing with ground corn and other grains and fed to pigs.  The resulting porridge was called slop and pigs loved and thrived on it.  It was also fed to heifers and other farm animals on a more limited basis.
    After  mid century, farmers became more specialized and concentrated on fewer  types of animals.  As fewer dairy farmers raised pigs, the need for whey lessened and the whey became an excess by-product which in some instances farmers spread on the fields as a fertilizer.  
    Soon, however, it became a commodity that could be sold.  Plants dedicated to processing whey appeared and huge clean tanker trucks collected fresh whey directly from the cheesemaking operation on a daily basis.  The whey was then processed into a dry whey product and re-sold for use in many human food products. The days of the stinky cheese factory whey tank were numbered. "
Picture
Wisconsin Historical Society Collection
Picture
ca. 1920. Gottlieb Werren cheesemaker.
Picture
Picture
Higher quality reproductions of some of the MHAHS's images are available for a small fee - contact our Research Center.
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The Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society controls copyrights to the images on this site. 
For permission to use these images please call 608.437.6486 or email mthorebmuseum@mhtc.net