I haven’t had my dinner yet, and this cheese is making my mouth water! Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheeses Classics Fresh Mozzarella is crafted on the Crave brothers family-run dairy farm and farmstead cheesemaking enterprise in Wisc.
Recently, the Craves doubled the size of their cheesemaking facility. Their original plant, built in 2001, was approximately 10,000 square feet, while the new setup has about 20,000 square feet. Virtually every area in the plant — the make room, packaging center, cold storage and even the office – has been enlarged and improved.
In other changes, specialized new cheesemaking equipment is being put in place, and new employees will be added to the current staff of four cheesemakers and 35 employees; by this spring the Craves anticipate having one more cheesemaker and 10 more employees in other areas of the plant.
The changes are necessary, said George Crave, to meet the growing demand for their existing cheese varieties and so that they can make more cheese varieties that have great potential in the retail and foodservice markets. They are making the changes carefully to preserve the small-batch quality and farmstead nature of their cheese plant, building on their current success and making the best use of their supply of fresh, premium milk.
The cheese plant was designed so that fresh milk is piped directly from the milking parlor to the cheese plant. Inside the plant, a combination of modern-day equipment and Old Worldtechniques are used to craft their award-winning cheeses. The original varieties of cheese included Mascarpone, Fresh Mozzarella, Mozzarella Rope/Oaxaca, and their own creation, a European-style cheese, “Les Frères” (French for “the brothers,” it’s a parchment-wrapped 2 ½-lb. wheel), and Petit Frère (French for “little brother”), an 8-oz. wheel of Les Frères packed in a keepsake wooden box.
New varieties of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheeses are being developed. George says the new products will preserve the family’s legacy of producing specialty cheese varieties, with unique packaging and premium quality.