We're both big cheese fans, so it goes without saying that a tour of the cheese and country markets was on the agenda for us during a recent visit to Holmes County, Ohio.
Holmes County is one of a group of 3 to 5 Ohio counties where 40,000 Amish people live and work. Nearly half of Holmes County's residents are Amish, which means it's a great place for comfort-food style meals and fresh Amish cheese.
Holmes County has plenty of shopping opportunities for hand-crafted items, cheese, and cheesy souvenirs, but we opted to concentrate on hitting the markets and filling up our cooler with some edible souvenirs of the trip.
Our first stop was Guggisberg Cheese in Charm, Ohio. This Swiss-style shop is the place for Baby Swiss and other Swiss cheese varieties.
Amish farmers, looking to expand the market for their milk, convinced master cheese maker Alfred Guggisberg to leave his home in Switzerland and settle in Charm's Doughty Valley. Guggisberg came here in the late 1940s and took over a local cheese operation that became Guggisberg Cheese in 1950. Today, Alfred's son Richard oversees the company's various outlets and continues to produce award-winning cheeses.
We liked the premium Swiss here and enjoyed the opportunity to take a peek at the cheese-making operation through large windows overlooking the factory from the retail shop.
Heini's Cheese Chalet in Millersburg, Ohio, is a much larger retail outlet and includes a gift shop with Amish crafts, a fudge factory (ah, fudgies, they're everywhere!), and a huge mural covering the history of cheese making.
Heini's also traces its roots back to Switzerland. Master cheesemaker John (Hans) Dauwalder trained in that country and first came to the United States in the 1920s to explore our country's growing cheese market. He returned to Switzerland to marry Lili Mueller in 1933, and the couple returned to the United States with their family in 1948 to join John's brother Crist in building a family cheese business that Crist acquired in 1935. Today, Dauwalder family members still operate the company, which is a primary outlet for Amish farmers' milk in the region.
The things we liked best about this stop were the fact that we could taste just about every cheese on display before making our purchases and the large windows overlooking the cheese making operation. There wasn't much going on in the factory at the time we visited, but I caught a quick glimpse of the process in a short video at Heini's Web site. We particularly liked some of the raw milk cheddar and dill-flavored cheeses here.
We also wandered over the Holmes County border to visit Heini's Gourmet Market at Sugarcreek in neighboring Tuscarawas County.
The market, like Heini's Cheese Chalet, offered tasting samples of all of the cheeses on display, plus is had a fully stocked wine shop. The store also offers culinary classes and demonstrations.
I was able to pick up a bottle of American Riesling from Ohio's Ferrante Winery, which I'd tasted and knew I liked when I visited the Lake Erie winery on a previous trip to Ohio.
We asked the clerk at the market if she had any ice packs we could purchase for our cooler. She didn't have any, but she went into the back room and bagged up enough ice for us to put in our travel cooler to keep our purchases cool. I always appreciate great customer service, and I thank the market clerk for her kindness.
Troyer's Country Market is a large grocery store in Millersburg, Ohio, stocked with a lot bulk and local items. I was able to find the hard-to-find, clove-flavored hard candies that I like here in the bulk food section.
You could buy Troyer's famous Trail Bologna at the market or at one of the other stores around town, but we opted to check out the small factory store in Trail, Ohio.
Fans of ring bologna will like this version, an all-beef ring of spicy bologna developed by Michael Troyer in 1912. Today, the fourth-generation family business still wood-smokes the meat and sells it from the factory store. My only regrets at this stop? We couldn't take more than a single ring of bologna home with us, and we'd already had lunch, so we missed the chance to have a ring bologna sandwich there. As always, leaving something to do the next time we visit the area.
Want to learn more about the Amish and Mennonite communities in Holmes County? Check out Holmespun: An Intimate Portrait of an Amish and Mennonite Community by Laura Hurwitz.
© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved
Sounds like a really fun place to visit. And yum...did someone mention a fudge factory? :)
Posted by: gypsyscarlett | July 17, 2011 at 09:05 AM
Fudge...yes, fudge was involved :lol:
Posted by: Dominique King | July 25, 2011 at 06:25 AM
My Dad, Owen E. Oswald was born and raised in Farmerstown, Ohio. My brother and I would visit our Grandparents, Oscar and Pearl Oswald, during the summer. We would go to the auctions on Tues. Then ride our bikes down the hill to a small cheese making factory they had there. Boy, were those EVER the good ole days. Someyimes, wish I were little again. :)
Posted by: Darlene Neu (Oswald) | May 10, 2012 at 10:18 AM
Thanks for stopping by, Darlene!
Sounds like a great place to grow up. We had a lot of fun visiting and loved the cheese we got there. Beautiful area, too.
Posted by: Dominique King | May 10, 2012 at 03:59 PM