Farms to Food

I knew that Tony and Julie Hook live in Madison while the plant for Hook's Cheese Company is located in Mineral Point, WI. My assumption was that Tony's commute into Mineral Point was that of an executive arriving to oversee his company. Having long-since established the business with his hard labor he now spends most of his time behind his desk. His wife Julie? A stay-at-home mom who supported the family endeavor.

You know what they say about assumptions, right? Until very recently, "Julie and I made all of the cheese," says Tony. In September of last year, "I hired my brother full-time. We became grandparents and Julie wants to spend more time with her grandchild. So my brother and I are at the plant every day."

Established in 1976, Tony says not only have he and Julie been making all of the cheese most of those years, Tony picked up the milk from neighboring farms, "until ten years ago when I hired a guy to pick it up for me. And then I talked him into buying the truck. So he's got our milk route and another route for Brunkow Cheese.

The story of the dairy farmers supplying milk to Hook's Cheese is a story unto itself. First, there's the milk.

"All of our farmers sign an agreement with us that they won't use BGH growth hormone," Tony explains. "So all of our milk is BGH-free. And all we deal with are small farms in the Mineral Point Area, with from 10 up to 60 cows. These days that's tiny. All are small family farms. And we've dealt with these same families for the last 33, 34 years. We know them. We know their kids."

Tony says that most of the farms are multi-generation and long established. One was established in 1840 (nine years before Wisconsin statehood!), another in 1875, another in 1850.

In 1982 Hook's entry of Colby won the "Best of Class" award in the World Cheese Championship. It was then judged against the winners of all the other classes and it was judged the "Finest Cheese in the World" out of 482 entries. There were entries from fourteen states and sixteen countries. Not only was their cheese a world first, Julie was the first and remains the only woman to win the world cheese championship.

Another assumption that would be incorrect concerning the Hooks is that they've always sold cheese under their own label at a price higher than the commodities market. Until 2001, "We weren't labeling most of our cheese at all," says Tony. "We can produce 100 40-pound blocks out of our big vat. So the buyers were just buying vat quantities, cutting it up and labeling it for whomever. We didn't know where it ended up.

"We were selling it to these big distributors and they were just selling it down the line. Up to that point we were only selling five percent of our production as our own product under our own label at the Dane County Farmers' Market and some small stores."

Making cheese for the commodity market is tough work. "Julie and I started at two in the morning," he recalls. "We made two batches and were getting done at 8:00 at night."

Julie continues, "He always wanted to experiment. Working from 2:00 am to 8:00 pm who had the time? He had all of these ideas and our own cheese that nobody else in the world makes and we didn't have time for it. We were just exhausted. We had two kids at the time and were going to school events and all of that as well. When I look back I don't know how we did it."

That all changed in 2001, when the Hooks, "put everything under our own label and set our own prices," explains Tony. "We always made high quality cheese, at least I'd like to think so. We just decided to pay more attention to each batch and to grow into other varieties.

"At that point we only had one distributor in the Madison Area distributing our products under our label. Since then we've picked up several more but they're all small. Some we still ship UPS so it's only a few hundred pounds at a time when we sell it."

Hook's Cheese now sells around 40 varieties. They have cheddars that go from one year all the way to 12 years. In 2010 they'll have a 15-year cheddar available. They also carry several varieties of Swiss and four of blue cheese. "We have a couple of other things in the works if they'll ever pan out," says Tony.

And what's the best way to care for cheese once you've purchased it?

"We sell most of ours in plastic" Tony explains. "That isn't always the best thing for cheese. But this way you can see what you are getting. Now, when you take it home the best way to keep it, to preserve it longer is to put it in freezer paper or waxed paper and then put it in a plastic bag. The freezer paper lets it breath and the bag keeps it from drying out completely. If you let cheese breath it won't mold."

And if it should develop mold? "Just trim off the mold until you get down to what tastes fine," Tony recommends.

Chances are, though, that the Hook's cheese you take home from the market will disappear from your refrigerator well before that becomes an issue. And we're betting on that assumption we're correct.

For more information:
Hook's Cheese Company, Inc.
Tony and Julie Hook
608-987-3259
hookscheese@yahoo.com