Ashe County Cheese Factory
Ashe County Cheese Company
78 years young and still growing
The
many attractions offered to visitors of the High Country each year
seems to grow with the changing of the seasons. However one attraction
in West Jefferson in Ashe County keeps drawing visitors back again and
again.
Visitors to the Ashe County Cheese Store are
greeted by smiling associates and a large overall-clad mouse. Shoppers
will find a vast array of not only Ashe County Cheese products but also
an impressive selection of imported cheeses and Amish made products from
quilts and wooden furniture to jarred goods. Photo by Ron Fitzwater
Visitors
to the Ashe County Cheese Company can see cheese being made from the
comfort of the factory's viewing room located above the production
floor. Photo by Ron Fitzwater
The Ashe County Cheese Company located
at 106 East Main Street in West Jefferson was founded in 1930 and is
the only cheese making factory of its type in North Carolina. Though the
company has changed ownership a few times since 1930, the Ashe County
Cheese Company has continued to grow in popularity and in product.
Built
by the Kraft Company, the business was called Kraft-Phoenix Cheese up
through the mid 1970s when it was sold and renamed Ashe County Cheese
Company. In that same year the store began, simply by selling cheese
curd out of the factory, but due to unexpected and welcome popularity
soon moved across Main Street to its present and ever expanding
location.
"I have been here for six years and I think we have
expanded in one capacity or another every year, said Store Manager Josh
Williams.
In 1993 the company was purchased by Mike Everhart
and Tom Torkelson, two Wisconsin Cheese makers who saw the growth
potential for the company which includes the production facility and the
Ashe County Cheese Store, owned separately from the factory by
Everhart.
The factory facility was designed to produce 22 pound
hoop cheddar cheese and to this day 99 percent of the facility's
production goes to that product. But the factory has also branched out
to produce a limited number of spiced cheeses and also fresh butter. Of
course the most popular item is cheese curd that is packaged fresh when
the factory is in production and sold daily.
The factory makes
an average of 24,000 pounds of cheese per week from more than 200,000
gallons of fresh milk purchased from the Dairy Farmers of America and
brought in by tanker truck. The milk is pasteurized on site and put into
the vats to make the cheese.
After the cheese is finished and
packed into molds to form the familiar hoop, cheese makers begin to
separate the cream, curds and whey. The process takes a little time but
when through the curd is recovered for packaging and sale, any cream
remaining is skimmed to make butter, while the whey is pumped into
waiting tanks for a special purpose. "About 600 pounds of butter is
produced every two weeks," Williams said.
"The whey is given to
local farmers for their fields. It is high in nitrogen and does a great
job on their pasture lands. We don't charge them for the whey and we
have our own driver take it out and spread it on the fields. Its
something that we just enjoy doing for our neighbors,"Williams said.
The
cheese is sold to distributors who put it into chain grocery stores and
small town Mom and Pop stores primarily in the Southeast but also parts
of Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Missouri.
Walking into the
store, visitors are greeted by smiling associates and a large
overall-clad mouse holding a tray filled with delectable goodies. The
store is brightly lit and filled with more than just the popular cheese
products made in the factory. Ashe County Cheese products are available
in individual packaging as well as the traditional hoop and a
considerable array of gift baskets sure to fit anyone's need. Selections
from local wineries such as New River Winery and Rag Apple Lassie among
others are sold along with an array of imported cheeses. Just don't
forget the curd.
The store also offers a vast selection of Amish
made products from hand made quilts, wood furniture, jams and jellies
to jarred goods such as watermelon-rind pickles.
A trip to Ashe
County Cheese Company is not complete without a stop by the viewing room
and according to Williams the number of visitors during the year
averages from 1,500 to upwards of 2,000 visitors per day from April to
December with only a slight drop off in the colder months of the year.
The
company does not conduct organized tours but the viewing room is open
daily and overlooks the production floor. Detailed photographs on the
wall take the visitor through the entire cheese making process from
start to finish. Future plans for the viewing room include installing a
video display to take visitors through the process. On days when cheese
is not being made workers are on the floor processing and packaging
products, so there is always something to see.
The factory makes
cheese several times per week and the schedule is fluid; updated
schedules can be found at the company's web page.
Getting to the
Ashe County Cheese Company is easy and convenient from most anywhere in
the High Country; only a 35 minute drive from Boone it is one place
that should be on every visitor's schedule.
For directions,
cheese making schedules or to order Ashe County Cheese products on line
click to www.ashecountycheese.com-Ron Fitzwater
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