May is American Cheese Month!
Celebrating American Cheese Month and Cheeseheads
By Carole Wagener, Coastal Dunes Branch
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “Wisconsin?” Cheddar cheese, cheeseheads, or football, maybe?
Most of you know that the president of Coastal Dunes, Pat Sturm, and I consider ourselves to be cheeseheads because we originate from Wisconsin. Did you know that Wisconsin is the number one cheese-producing state, and ninety percent of the milk it produces is made into cheese? Squeaky cheese curds, anyone?
At first, being called a cheesehead was a derogatory term, but then a Green Bay Packers fan, Ralph Bruno, turned that around in 1987 by making the first cheese hat from a piece of foam rubber using his mother’s old couch cushion. The story I heard is that he took something hot, like a blow torch, to the cushion, made holes resembling Swiss cheese, and then wore it to a game. His hat quickly became popular with fans because Green Bay’s colors are dark green and gold.
Today, a bright yellow wedge-shaped hat sells for around $25. The Green Bay Packers don’t have an official mascot (Who wants to see a meatpacker on the field?) but the cheese hats have become synonymous with Packers fans holding a cup of beer and shouting, “Go Pack, go.”
A cheesehead is not to be confused with head cheese, though. As a kid, the first time I saw the beginnings of head cheese was when I opened my aunt’s refrigerator door, looking for a snack, and a pig’s head in a large metal pan stared back at me.
“Yikes! How did that get in there?” I screamed, slammed the refrigerator door, and ran outside.
You can serve me cheese, it will make me smile any day, but I’ll skip that disgusting head cheese (jellified pig brains). Yuk!
“Celebrating National Cheese Month and Cheeseheads”
originally appeared in the newsletter of
the Coastal Dunes Branch.