Highlights Archives
Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker
America's Dairyland. Those two words on Wisconsin's license plate tell you a lot about the state and its agricultural heritage. They also tell you a lot about a new book from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press titled Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker by renowned Wisconsin storyteller, Jerry Apps. This new book in the Badger Biographies Series for young readers takes you inside Jaggi's Brodhead Swiss cheese factory — the largest factory of its kind in Wisconsin in the 1950s.
Jaggi learned to make cheese from his father while growing up in the Swiss Alps. When he came to the United States in 1913, he settled in Green County, where the rolling hills dotted with grazing cows reminded him of home. The county was also filled with cheese makers. Soon he was making cheese just as he had in Switzerland, and in 1941 he opened his own cheese factory.
Apps takes readers through the cheese-making process using archival photos to illustrate how Jaggi and his workers transformed 2,000 pounds of milk in a copper kettle to a 200-pound wheel of Swiss cheese. Jaggi was one of the many European immigrants who helped establish Wisconsin's reputation for delicious cheese.
:: Posted March 12, 2008
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