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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