WELCOME TO THE CAVES OF FARIBAULT
By Nancy Feeney
Editor’s note: this article is reprinted from Dairyman
magazine, the member publication of Swiss Valley Farms, a
dairy cooperative based in Davenport, Iowa. Nancy Feeney is
editor and member relations manager for Swiss Valley Farms.
hen Swiss Valley Farms purchased The
Caves of Faribault in August [2010], all of
the co-op’s dairy producer members
acquired a piece of American
cheesemaking history. Jeff Jirik, the
former owner of Faribault Dairy, and now vice president
of the co-op’s Blue Cheese Division, proudly recounts a
rich history embedded deep within the caves’ sandstone
walls.
The history of the caves begins in 1854, when Gottfried
Fleckenstein, a German immigrant on a brief boat trip
stopover in Faribault, Minn., discovered natural St. Peter
sandstone caves along the Straight River. Carved out of
the sandstone by the receding glaciers thousands of years
ago, the caves extended back into the bluffs.
Fleckenstein knew they would be the perfect place for
brewing and storing beer. He never got back on the boat!
He opened a German brewery inside the caves and
became a prosperous Faribault resident.
In 1936, the caves were taken over by Felix
Frederickson and soon became the site of the first blue
cheese plant in America. Frederickson enlarged the main
cave and began making cave-aged blue cheese.
St. Peter sandstone, found only in Minnesota, Iowa,
Illinois and northern Missouri, is ideally suited for aging
cheeses because of its slightly acidic nature, architectural
integrity, the perfect humidity and temperature conditions
(53 degrees year around), and the unique properties that
allow water to move both vertically and horizontally, never
dripping.
In 1938, entirely new caves were hand hewn from the
sandstone rock to accommodate expansion for cheese
curing.
Down through the decades, the caves changed hands a
few more times, until Faribault Dairy took ownership of
the caves in 2001. It continued the legend by
manufacturing and curing America’s original blue cheese.
“We named our blue cheese AmaBlu,” Jirik says.
“‘Ama,’ which is Latin for ‘I love,’ and ‘blu,’ which stands
for the cheese variation we make.”
Today, the caves are part of Swiss Valley’s history.
There are 13 caves used to cure more than 1 million
pounds of award-winning American Blue and Gorgonzola
cheeses, among other varieties.
Just across from the caves sits the cheese plant, where
cheesemakers faithfully follow Frederickson’s original
recipe, crafting the cheeses by hand using no artificial
ingredients, then hand-salting them before they make
their way into the caves.
It is the time spent in the caves that determines the
cheeses’ flavor profile. AmaBlu blue cheese is aged 75
days to create a tangy, yet not-too-sharp flavor. Its cohort,
AmaGorg Gorgonzola cheese, is aged 90 days and
displays more sharpness, in addition to being sweeter and
drier than the blue cheese. AmaBlu St. Pete’s Select Blue
Cheese is a premium variety of blue cheese, aged more than
100 days in the caves it was named after. It exhibits a creamy,
complex flavor worthy of its signature status.
Faribault Dairy remains the only U.S. cheesemaker to still
cure and age its blue cheese exclusively in rock caves. Jirik
never tires of describing what it is like to walk into a cave
where the blue cheeses are curing.
“The cave-aged, ‘naked cheeses’ evoke the aroma of a
freshly tilled garden in spring,” he says. “The sweet fragrance
of butterfat breaking down into floral notes permeates the
air.”
With such pride and enthusiasm for his cave-aged blue
cheeses, it is no surprise Deli Business magazine called Jirik
the most innovative cheesemaker in America. This year, he
won a best of class award for his Gorgonzola at the World
Championship Cheese Contest.
Not to be forgotten is another cave located just up the
street from the plant. Although it’s not made of sandstone, it
plays just as valuable a role as the real caves themselves. The
Cheese Cave, created in 2009 by Jirik with business associates
Jeff LaBeau and Bob Foley, is the retail outlet for the cheeses
from The Caves of Faribault, and a mecca for cheese lovers
and culinary connoisseurs.
The quaint store located in the downtown Faribault
shopping district carries specialty cheeses, dry goods and
spreads and is always bustling with tastings, cooking
demonstrations and other gourmet events. A small vat of
fresh cheese curds is made there twice a week. It also markets
over the Internet.
To view a Food Network interview with Jirik about the
Caves of Faribault, visit: http://www.foodnetwork.com/
videos/select-blue-cheese/27470.html.
