Dodgeville, WI
Dodgeville, Wisconsin
Our cheese is made by a small group of people grazing a unique herd of cows on a steep ridgetop farm. This is the story of our land, animals and people. The story of who we are and why we're here.
Our Story
1/4 The Land
The land
Pleasant Ridge sits up high in the center of Wisconsin's Driftless Region, in an area known as the Uplands. This unique pocket of the Upper Midwest was untouched by the last glacial age and thus left with its ancient karst bedrock. Hills and valleys shaped by millions of years of flowing water.
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The land
Ancient ridgetops like ours, too windswept for forests, instead grew into grasslands. The winds pushed piles of rich, loamy soil up onto our hills, making perfect pasture for bison, who in turn fertilized the growing grass and built carbon reserves deep into the ground. Over thousands of years, the bison, the wind and the rain built some of the finest grazing soils in the world.
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The land
Despite our rich soils, the first farmers struggled on these steep hills, which don't lend themselves to the plow. Farms stayed small or didn't stay at all and it wasn't until the 1990s, when our farm was planted back to perennial pasture, that it returned to its calling. Grassland supporting ruminants supporting grassland.
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2/4 Our Cows
Our cows
Since our farm returned to pasture in 1994, we have maintained a closed herd, with the goal of developing cows suited to our land. Over the decades, we have crossed nine different breeds within our herd, and any cow milked here has been born and raised here.
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Our cows
In our herd, we search for novel combinations of traits that don't exist in a single breed but are uniquely suited to our farm and our cheese.
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Our cows
From these special cows we keep daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters. Their families are part of our family and they are at the center of what we do. By grazing and fertilizing, the cows sustain our soil, and by turning that grass into unique milk, they sustain us.
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3/4 Our Cheese
Our cheese
After thousands of years of bison, a century of cows and a return to perennial pasture in the 1990s, our farm made its first cheeses in 2000. It was clear we had special pastures and a unique herd of cows, and cheese was simply a way to capture that character.
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Our cheese
To capture the character of our farm, we only make cheese while our cows are on pasture. Seven mornings a week, May through November, we send fresh, unpasteurized milk seventy feet underground, from the barn into the cheese vat.
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Our cheese
In the spring, summer and fall, we make Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a hard cheese aged until it's ripe and ready for release the following year.
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Our cheese
In the fall, we make Rush Creek Reserve, a soft cheese aged for two months and sold only in November and December. Both cheeses ripen in our open-air cheese caves, where their natural rinds and our constant care bring them to their peak.
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4/4 Our People
Our people
Your cheese purchases also sustain us, and we are very grateful for your support. A large portion of your dollars trickle out into our local economy, which needs all the help it can get. And as a final bonus, we have come to enjoy all the meaningful relationships we have with people connected to the farm. Neighbors we see once a week, distant customers we talk to once a year, and everyone in between.
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Our people
The Hatch family owns, operates and lives on the farm, as do our senior employees. Together with a few long-serving locals, we are a team of ten. Added to this each year are a half-dozen cheesemaking apprentices, who come from far and wide to spend a season on Pleasant Ridge.
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The process
Land
Each day's batch of cheese begins as the 10 acres of fresh pasture the cows grazed the day before. Our cows are rotated to new pastures twice a day, after each milking, and won't return to a field for 30–45 days, until it's had time to regrow.
Herd
Our cows transform that 10 acres of pasture into 8,000 lbs of milk, which flows from the barn into the cheese vat via an underground pipe.
Make
In the cheese vat, this 8,000 lbs of milk becomes 800 lbs of cheese. The fresh wheels look round and perfect but they enter the caves almost flavorless. Full of potential that will only be revealed with time.
Finish
This 800 lbs of cheese leaves the caves months later as 675 lbs. This is the final distillation of flavor, which began with pasture turning into milk, and milk into cheese. Like cooking down a stock, flavors concentrate as the cheeses dry down, revealing more and more of their core character until, at the right moment, we send them out into the world.
Timeline
How it all began
The Gingrich and Patenaude families buy the farm, convert it from row crops to perennial pasture and start rotational grazing.
First batches
Mike Gingrich makes the first batches of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, an original cheese inspired by alpage Beaufort and Gruyère.
Shot out of a cannon
In its debut year, Pleasant Ridge is awarded Best of Show by the American Cheese Society.
A second national title
Pleasant Ridge is awarded Best of Show by the US Cheese Championships, making it the only cheese to win both national competitions.
A repeat win
Pleasant Ridge is awarded Best of Show by the American Cheese Society for the second time.
Three-time champion
Pleasant Ridge is awarded Best of Show by the American Cheese Society for the third time, making it the only cheese to achieve this honor three times.
Rush Creek Reserve debut
Rush Creek Reserve debut is covered by the New York Times, who calls it “fluent and satiny, with hints of smoke and pork.”
One generation to the next
Longtime employees Andy Hatch and Scott Mericka buy the farm from the Gingrich and Patenaude families, succeeding their mentors.
Looking ahead
Andy and Caitlin Hatch become sole owners and rebuild the creamery.
Recognition
3x
Pleasant Ridge Reserve won Best of Show in 2001, 2005, and 2010 — the only cheese to win it three times.
2003
Pleasant Ridge Reserve is the only cheese to win both the ACS Best of Show and the US Cheese Championships.
2026
Named by Culture magazine as one of the world's best cheeses
The cheese
Alpine-style · Aged 9+ months
$30.00
Like the coveted alpage versions of Beaufort and Gruyère, made only while our cows are on pasture. Extended aging shows off the complexity of our grass-fed milk.
Soft-ripened · Autumn release
$37.00
A seasonal soft-ripened cheese with a richer autumn profile. Limited quantities each fall.
Stay in the loop
Rush Creek Reserve and Extra-Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve both ship in limited quantities. Join our list and we'll reach out when each product is ready.
