Cheese Days '06

This past Saturday, The Dulcinea, Miles, and I swung down to Monroe for Cheese Days. It was a nice sunny day though a bit on the windy side so The Dulcinea had to keep an eye on her skirt lest it fly up revealing her naughty bits.



Since Miles was with us, I wasn't allowed to head down to the Berghoff tent to enjoy some bier. I had told Old Man Standiford that I'd meet him there but, when I got to town, I realized I didn't have his cell number. So the 3 of us wandered around the town square and enjoyed some tasty food and some music.

Despite the presence of pizza and French fries, the celebration is really about a bunch of crazy Swiss-Americans who make cheese.



The cheese tasting tent was mobbed.





I bought a block of Brick cheese with garlic which is incredibly tasty, I can assure you. I think The Dulcinea bought peppered Havarti. Here's some guys from the cheesemaking demonstration covering a copper hoolie. I wish we'd been there for when they were actually doing a full-on demo.



Here's some other sights:





No doubt this couple remembered the days when this truck was actually in use.



"I want my garmonbozia!"

As we wandered the square, I'd alternately hear yodeling and alphorns. Strolling towards the stand selling chocolate-covered cheesecake, I found the tent from which the alphorns emanated. It was the hospitality tent or some such thing. At first I peeked in but eventually took a seat right up front as the alphorn blowers were just finishing a piece. When done, they gave a brief history of the instrument, syaing that they were generally made from pine and used to be blown from mountain tops to give signals to the folks below or on other peaks. Audience members were then invited to try one.



This was followed by singing/yodeling and some accordion music.





The accordion player gave a little introduction before he played in which he credited a cousin of his for getting him to start playing the instrument. He also remarked that very few people play the instrument these days and so he encouraged the young folk to take it up.

Soon enough, we had to head back to Madison. Hopefully I can find more time and less children for the next time. I would have liked to have sampled more cheese, had a brew, and have been able to listen to more alphorns and accordion.

At the corn stand, I found that one could get your corn either dipped in butter or wtih mayo & cheese. Now, when I grew up, we used butter (and some pepper) exclusively. The idea of putting mayo on corn never occurred to us. So, where did this practice originate?