Wisconsin is the dairy state so it just wouldn't do to visit there and not bring home cheeses. We bring a cooler for traveling that keeps drinks and snacks cold on the way there and additional folding cooler. On the journey home we make several stops filling up the coolers as desired. Cheese makes up a good portion of what we bring home but fish and some meats often are added to the coolers.
Cedar Valley Cheese Store
I wrote about the Cedar Valley Cheese Store in Belgium, Wisconsin the first time we visited. This is one of must stop at places when in the area. While the store is small and off the beaten path it is well worth the stop! They make one of the best cheese strings I've ever tasted and they are packaged in bulk so there is none of that pesky individual packaging to deal with.
I really love visiting this cheese store. They have lots of samples to help you with your choices. The store is nicely laid out with cheeses well labeled to help in your in your selection. They also have a wide variety of other food items that pair nicely with cheese including gourmet jams, jellies and pastas. I bought 4.02 lb cheese sticks, .90 lb white cheddar curds, 3.58 lb colby, 3.59 lb cheddar and 4 lb of butter. Butter was on sale for $1.50/lb! I would have bought more but we still hadn't decided when exactly we were returning home. We had freed up the week so there was a very good possibility we would not be home before Thanksgiving Sunday (Oct. 11). That would mean keeping the cheese on ice for almost a week. The cooler weather really worked in our favour!
