You know you live in Wisconsin when....

[Rustbucket]

I was amazed to learn that outside of the state, they really don't know cheese curds, say nothing of deep fried curds.
About the closest you'll find is mozerella sticks

Québec is probably the only other place in North America where they are as commonly eaten as Wisconsin. I’ve never seen them served deep fried though.

 

[Rustbucket]

 

[bottlenecker]

I was amazed to learn that outside of the state, they really don't know cheese curds, say nothing of deep fried curds.
About the closest you'll find is mozerella sticks

Cheese curds are a stage in the process of making other cheese. You have to have a lot of cheese making going on to have curds available, and a culture of people wanting them. The curds I eat are usually just hours old, soaking in whey. They're not impressive by the time they get somewhere else and take a week to sell. California could have curds, but I've never seen them there. I think they just don't have the culture for it. Montreal invented poutine because Quebec has awesome dairy and lots of curds.

 

[imwjl]

3 wheels, not 4? Oh, yer way up north der hey.

First there is that inventory of old 3 wheelers that are out there and still running. Next, there's a skill practiced in multiple places in the world of just carrying on with a 4 wheeled vehicle that has 3. I'm really surprised @BigDaddyLH hasn't posted a good graphic of that yet.

I used to think that latter type of 3 wheel driving skill required alcohol or opiates skill but I've driven in Jamaica's mountains and places where most tourists never go and saw a once 4 wheel tractor driving on 3.

 

[Rustbucket]

Cheese curds are a stage in the process of making other cheese. You have to have a lot of cheese making going on to have curds available, and a culture of people wanting them. The curds I eat are usually just hours old, soaking in whey. They're not impressive by the time they get somewhere else and take a week to sell. California could have curds, but I've never seen them there. I think they just don't have the culture for it. Montreal invented poutine because Quebec has awesome dairy and lots of curds.

Montréal did not invent Poutine. That claim is heavily debated between Warwick and Drummondville, Québec. Don’t ever argue for Drummond in front of my wife’s family.

 

[blowtorch]

Drinking an Old Style?

When you get north of say Stevens Point, it seems nearly all the tavern signs are Old Style signs.

They must give them a real deal on em

 

[bottlenecker]

Québec is probably the only other place in North America where they are as commonly eaten as Wisconsin. I’ve never seen them served deep fried though.

They saw the deep fried curds and said "hold my beer"...

 

[bottlenecker]

Montréal did not invent Poutine. That claim is heavily debated between Warwick and Drummondville, Québec. Don’t ever argue for Drummond in front of my wife’s family.

Ok, I'll just go with Quebec from now on.

 

[Rustbucket]

They saw the deep fried curds and said "hold my beer"...

Tiens ma bière !

 

[bottlenecker]

When you get north of say Stevens Point, it seems nearly all the tavern signs are Old Style signs.
They must give them a real deal on em

I just assumed they've been hanging there since 1958.

 

[imwjl]

Cheese curds are a stage in the process of making other cheese. You have to have a lot of cheese making going on to have curds available, and a culture of people wanting them. The curds I eat are usually just hours old, soaking in whey. They're not impressive by the time they get somewhere else and take a week to sell. California could have curds, but I've never seen them there. I think they just don't have the culture for it. Montreal invented poutine because Quebec has awesome dairy and lots of curds.

This. Our stores specialize in local and quality foods. It is expensive to stock really fresh curds. Common distribution doesn't have them so fresh, and it is a high shrink item to guarantee what you pick up is really good.

This truck was my 1960s day care center with my grandfather a hides and junk dealer. The trips to and from buying or selling or people delivering scrap would often include some fresh food in the deal or bartering. There were far more small cheesemakers. The I can never forget sounds and smells included stopping at small country cheesemakers. In addition to fresh curds, my grandfather and father liked and got Limburger cheese.

Long before the micro/local brew rebirth, Huber in Monroe (now Minhas brewery) survived prohibition and was in the center of cheese country. A trip to Monroe would be that old truck putt putting the steep hills and coming home with copper, hides, curds, limburger and dark beer when it was not popular.

Now elements of our lifestyle once laughed at that were rooted in being poor and immigrant grandparents are now cool.

 

[bottlenecker]

This. Our stores specialize in local and quality foods. It is expensive to stock really fresh curds. Common distribution doesn't have them so fresh, and it is a high shrink item to guarantee what you pick up is really good.

This truck was my 1960s day care center with my grandfather a hides and junk dealer. The trips to and from buying or selling or people delivering scrap would often include some fresh food in the deal or bartering. There were far more small cheesemakers. The I can never forget sounds and smells included stopping at small country cheesemakers. In addition to fresh curds, my grandfather and father liked and got Limburger cheese.

Long before the micro/local brew rebirth, Huber in Monroe (now Minhas brewery) survived prohibition and was in the center of cheese country. A trip to Monroe would be that old truck putt putting the steep hills and coming home with copper, hides, curds, limburger and dark beer when it was not popular.

Now elements of our lifestyle once laughed at that were rooted in being poor and immigrant grandparents are now cool.

I had a limburger and onion sandwich once in Monroe, just because I knew there was only one maker left and I wanted to know what I might be missing some day. It was an experience.

 

[billy logan]

You know you live in Wisconsin when there's a ski jump ramp behind the intermediate school

(well, back in the day there was one...idk, anymore...just lived there one year)

 

[drf64]

You’ve been to a meat raffle

And, just like that, Western Bayfield County Historical Society had the most expensive roof ever constructed in Western Bayfield County. It was even meat-shaped.

 

[blowtorch]

Huber in Monroe (now Minhas brewery)

I love Minhas for it's utter lack of any hint of pretense.
And my joke about Huber beer is it's made by guys on work release programs

ou know you live in Wisconsin when there's a ski jump ramp behind the intermediate school

My highschool, Adams-Friendship, in central WI, had a small ski hill. My sister and I had season passes and we'd often ski after school.
Night skiing is the coolest

 

[bottlenecker]

I love Minhas for it's utter lack of any hint of pretense.
And my joke about Huber beer is it's made by guys on work release programs

My highschool, Adams-Friendship, in central WI, had a small ski hill. My sister and I had season passes and we'd often ski after school.
Night skiing is the coolest

I remember Huber bock being ok back in the 90s. But maybe that was just compared to the regular Huber, which I drank because it was free if you were playing at O'Cayz. I always drank too much of it at gigs, and wouldn't touch it any other time.

 

[imwjl]

I love Minhas for it's utter lack of any hint of pretense.
And my joke about Huber beer is it's made by guys on work release programs

My highschool, Adams-Friendship, in central WI, had a small ski hill. My sister and I had season passes and we'd often ski after school.
Night skiing is the coolest

I was not aware Monroe had or has the work release labor. Have you watched Trailer Park Boys? I'm now into a few seasons and can't help but see the parallels in labor force and people in and out of jail like when I managed a recycling center.

I love dirtbag/ghetto/earn it skiing as much as a big mountain is thrilling. I just re-committed to teaching little kids at Blackhawk. It was fun to wake up learning one of my 3 most alway at not acting our age pals got a Boho pass.

 

[Bellacaster]

I also remember Huber bock from the 90s being pretty good or something different from the easy drinking American lagers commonly available then. It was pretty cheap and I believe the bottles were obviously recycled as there was residue from labels past on the bottles. It was pretty commonly available in SW Michigan then. I haven't seen it here in many years.

 

[985plowboy]

Never have even seen a cheese curd.
But I’d love to try that out.

And it doesn’t snow here but we have definitely pulled one another on waterskis behind four wheelers after hurricanes.

 

[imwjl]

I remember Huber bock being ok back in the 90s. But maybe that was just compared to the regular Huber, which I drank because it was free if you were playing at O'Cayz. I always drank too much of it at gigs, and wouldn't touch it any other time.

After knowing Huber from early days and cheap college beer, my first tech firm employers knew Fred Huber who was kind of an interesting character.

In 1981 I lived up the street from O'Cayz, friends were in some sort of known bands such as Appliances and Killdozer, and one of my housemates and I would sort copper and silver breakage for the metal over cheap beer to then in essence trade it for more cheap beer. Then it was more Merlyn's and Plaza but later going down the street to O'Cayz or Cardinal.

Wow what memories and thinking about were I was and am.

I also remember Huber bock from the 90s being pretty good or something different from the easy drinking American lagers commonly available then. It was pretty cheap and I believe the bottles were obviously recycled as there was residue from labels past on the bottles. It was pretty commonly available in SW Michigan then. I haven't seen it here in many years.

Huber had an investment or rescue from the Chicago Berghoff restaurant people and a Madison beer distributor before Minhas sale. They with Point who survived were early in the trend to contract brew for others.

There were always jokes about it being swill or dirt from pipes but if you actually visited there you would see it was just what breweries were BSE (before swill era) and what hip places do now. Fred Huber was definitely sort of a pioneer hiring the brewmaster from Germany I'd also met and starting his Augsberger brand. Now decades later small brewers making lager and pilsner instead of just ales is what they did maybe 45 years ago now.

Most interesting in it all was how it was product that actually sold against the giants and all their marketing.