e sse nt i al food & beverage
Landmark Creamery by Kyle Jacobson The world of cheese geeks is more than niche in Wisconsin...barely. For most of us, after cheddar, parmesan, mozzarella, and maybe feta, we can’t see beyond the rind. You could fit everything I know about cheese into a colander, but what I do know is that cheese is usually delicious, which is a good place to start when visiting Landmark Creamery in Belleville. First thing I learned when meeting Landmark Creamery owners Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates is that Wisconsin doesn’t play in the minors when it comes to cheesemaking. Anna Thomas Bates says, “Wisconsin is the only state in the United States that requires cheesemakers to be licensed. It’s a number of classes at the Center for Dairy Research, a 240hour apprenticeship with another cheesemaker, and then an exam. Anna Landmark (certified cheesemaker) was 6 | madison essentials
pursuing that, and I said, ‘Well that’s really cool. What are you going to do next? What’s the plan?’” After chatting and learning that they each had a kid in the same grade, it was only logical that they would go into business together. Anna Thomas Bates had been a “food writer and had some chef connections and had some artisan food experience and farmers’ market stuff. I would do sales and marketing and promotion. And Anna Landmark is cheese, cheesemaking, food safety operation, all of that.” 2014 marked their first full production year. Anna Thomas Bates refers to those early years as nomadic, renting vats at different places, from Clock Shadow Creamery in Milwaukee to some places in Darlington and eventually Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain, Wisconsin. They also needed space to age their
cheeses, all but one made from sheep milk. “Affinage is the French word for aging cheese, and that’s an important step in our process,” says Anna Thomas Bates. “It’s a traditional old-world style
