Marieke Penterman Is Making Damn Good Gouda in the Heart of Wisconsin
We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Cheese for an interview mini-series called Meet the Makers, featuring a sampling of the state’s finest cheesemakers and their award-winning creations.
In 2019 I was lucky enough to attend the annual American Cheese Society Awards, hosted that year in Richmond, Virginia. Of the many fond memories I have from that trip, there’s one in particular that tends to rise to the top of my mind whenever I’m reflecting on it: a massive sea of proud Wisconsin cheesemakers cheering each other on as the state took home win after win for its incredible cheeses. I lost count of the number of awards that the state’s cheesemakers took home for cheddars and cheese curds—I’d expected them to shine in those categories. What I wasn’t expecting was for a Wisconsin cheesemaker to take home not one, but two awards for Gouda, a cheese I’d long associated only with Europe.