KEWAUNEE COUNTY, Wis. – A small Northeast Wisconsin cheesemaker recently made a big splash on an international stage.

Ben Shibler and his team at Ron’s Wisconsin Cheese in Kewaunee won first place for string cheese and third place for cheese curds and mozzarella whips at the 2022 American Cheese Society Awards.

Shibler said his passion for cheese runs deep.

“I love it,” Shibler said. “It’s been the longest relationship of my life.”

He said he’s meticulous about each step of the process.

“The cheesemaker’s skill at the vat is very important that they adjust and they can notice those little things," said Shibler. "If you cut it softer or cut it firmer, adjust your cook temperature, based off what the vat or the milk is telling you. We have to make little adjustments to get the cheese curd or that string cheese to be just the same as the last time the customer bought it.”

Their approach has proven effective as the team keeps earning international recognition for its work.

“For a small farmstead cheese operation like this, a family-run establishment, that’s huge,” Shibler said. “There’s companies from a couple of different countries that enter this contest, thousands of entries, some of the best cheesemakers and cheese companies in the world.”

“It’s almost priceless being able to win one of these contests and then the moral boost for the team. Being able to shine on the world stage like that with just three to four employees here is a really big deal,” he said. “It’s a big boost.”

Shibler added he still remembers the moment he learned his team was a winner.

“It was awesome," he said. "I was super excited. I was actually watching live on Facebook because I couldn’t go this year. It was kinda like watching the Super Bowl and watching your team win."

He said there’s one thing that makes his team’s cheese stand out from the large field of competition.

“Our only secret and it’s not really a secret, we tell everybody who comes and takes a tour, is the freshness of the milk,” he said. “The milking parlor is about seventy feet away. Every day when we make cheese when we come in and we pump the milk straight over from the parlor. 90 seconds after the cows are milked that same milk is flowing into our pasteurizer. We start the cheesemaking process right there. We are not better at making cheese than any other company. There’s companies that have been around for over a hundred years, they really know what they’re doing. We just have a premium superior freshness in our milk because we’re using it so fast.”

Shibler said winning feels great. After 16 years making cheese, he’s due to graduate from the Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Program in April. Shibler said his in the cheesemaking business for the long haul.

“I think no matter where my career takes me, I’m always going to be doing something with cheese and dairy,” he said. “It’s been a lifetime passion, and I don’t see that changing until after retirement maybe.”