Winchester Cheese Company was an artisan cheese producer in the town of Winchester, California, in Riverside County, Southern California.
The company was started by Jules Wesselink, who was born in the Netherlands and came to the United States when he was in his 20s. [1] [2] He worked at his future in-laws' dairy before moving to Artesia in the 1950s to start his own dairy. [3] He later moved to "a mountain rimmed valley situated in Winchester, near Temecula, about two hours southeast of Los Angeles and not far from San Diego." [3] After a plunge in dairy prices he visited his home town of Haarlem in the Netherlands in 1995, to learn the craft of Gouda cheesemaking. [4] Upon his return he started producing Gouda boerenkaas ("farmer's cheese"), first from milk supplied by his own Holstein cows, a Dutch breed, and after 2001 from other suppliers. [5] [3] [4] Commercial production started in 1996 and by 2008 was up to about 100,000 pounds annually. [1] [6]
Winchester Cheese Company expanded over the years and eventually included a gift shop, tasting area, and tour center. [3] "Winchester cheeses have won numerous awards in competitions around the world, and they're now available at cheese specialty shops, upscale restaurants and wineries throughout the Southland", according to a write-up in Westways magazine [3] as well as area farmer's markets. [7] Flavors included a jalapeño Gouda and cumin Gouda, [3] [8] and Gouda cheeses of various ages. [1] [9] Jules Wesselink died in 2011; continuation of production remained uncertain. [10] [11]
As of August 2013, the phone number is not in service and the company website no longer exists. According to Yelp, the company has closed. [12]
Gouda is a sweet, creamy, yellow cow's milk cheese originating from the Netherlands. It is one of the most popular cheeses worldwide. The name is used today as a general term for numerous similar cheeses produced in the traditional Dutch manner.
Monterey Jack, sometimes shortened to Jack, is a US white, semi-hard cheese made using cow's milk, with a mild flavor and slight sweetness. It has been called "an American original" and "as a vestige of Spanish rule in the early nineteenth century, derives from a Franciscan monastic style of farmer's cheese."
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Dean Foods was an American food and beverage company and the largest dairy company in the United States. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company maintained plants and distributors in the United States. Dean Foods had 66 manufacturing facilities in 32 U.S. states and distributed its products across all 50. Its 24 brands include DairyPure, TruMoo, Friendly's, Mayfield, Dean's, Meadow Gold, Tuscan, T.G.Lee and Alta Dena. In November 2019, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy citing the decline in consumption of cow's milk.
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Abbey Cheese was an Irish cheese manufacturer, making cows' milk and goats' milk cheeses in Portlaoise, County Laois. The manufacturing company, Abo Cheese Company Limited, ended operation in 2017.
Cypress Point Creamery is a cheese producer in Hawthorne, Florida. It is owned by John and Nancy Mims who maintain a herd of 170 Jersey cows as well as some Brown Swiss cows. The operation is located 15 miles east of Gainesville and sells Gouda, Havarti, baby Swiss, and tomme cheeses in addition to milk. The creamery is the state of Florida's fourth cheesemaking business that produces its cheeses on the same farm that produces the milk used in their creation, according to Scott Wallin of Florida Dairy Farmers.
The Chaseholm Farm Creamery is a 350-acre (140 ha) family-run farm in Pine Plains, New York, on the borders of Dutchess and Columbia Counties in New York's Hudson Valley, protected by the Columbia Land Conservancy. It works with many farms in the surrounding Hudson Valley as part of the local food movement. The Chaseholm Farm Creamery is currently run by siblings Rory and Sarah Chase.
The Caves of Faribault is an artisan cheese company headquartered in Faribault, Minnesota as a division of Swiss Valley Farms. Utilizing sandstone caves to age cheese, the company makes a variety of raw milk products, including several styles of blue cheese, Gouda, and cheddar.
Beemster cheese is a hard, Dutch cow's milk cheese. Production of Beemster is similar to other hard cheeses such as Gouda. The specific taste of Beemster stems from the ingredients, that part of the production process is done by hand, and that the cheeses are ripened in changing conditions.
Perfect Day, Inc. is a food technology startup company based in Berkeley, California, that has developed processes of creating dairy proteins, including casein and whey, by fermentation in microbiota, specifically from fungi in bioreactors, instead of extraction from bovine milk.
Dairy is a major industry in the state of Wisconsin. Being known for its dairy production, the state is often called "America's Dairyland." The industry is prominent in official state symbols—being displayed on the state's license plates, state's slogan, and on the state quarter.
Dairy is a significant part of the agricultural output of the state of California. California ranks first out of the fifty states in dairy production. The state has about 1,300 dairy farms and 1.727 million dairy cows. The state produces nearly 20 percent of all U.S. milk.
Killeen Farmhouse Cheese is a small farmhouse cheese maker based from a farm on the banks of the river Shannon near Portumna County Galway, Ireland.
