The Reporter from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin • A4

4A SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2022 THE REPORTER Obituaries NORTH FOND DU LAC Diane Marie Huck, 59, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on Friday, February 18, 2022 after a courageous battle with cancer. She was a caring wife, mother, grand- mother, sister, and friend. She was born on April 25, 1962 to Darold and Naomi (Heimerl) Collien in Waupun, Wisconsin. Diane was the youngest of 10 siblings and grew up in Oakfield, Wisconsin. Diane graduated from Oakfield High School in 1980 and was a part of the Oakfield basketball team who went to state for three consecutive years, winning the state championship in 1979.

She met her husband of 37 years, Mark Huck, and they married on May 26, 1984. Together, they had two daughters, Amanda and Samantha. Diane loved to spend time with her family and friends and recently retired from her 40-year career at Giddings She loved to golf, travel to local Wisconsin wineries, press her luck at the casinos, and was always the first on the dance floor at family weddings. She also enjoyed her shopping trips with her twin sister. Diane loved her grandchildren and spent whatever time she could with each of them.

She is survived by her husband, Mark Huck, of North Fond du Lac; daughter, Amanda (Jordan) Weed of Eldorado and their children Laken, Hazel, and Holland; daughter, Samantha Dylan Stanley) Huck of Madison; her parents, Darold and Naomi Collien of Oakfield, as well as her nine brothers and sisters: Gary (Rose) Collien of Oakfield, Gregory (Carol) Collien of Lamartine, Ronald (Karen) Collien of Oakfield, Cheri (Mike) Fisher of Oakfield, Randall (Beth) Collien of Rosendale, Cathy (Mike) Baker of Oakfield, Joe (Lisa) Collien of Lamartine, Karen (Mike) Merk of Oakfield, and Denise (Randy) Andrus of Lamartine. She is further survived by her mother-in-law, Janet Huck-Novitske of Fond du Lac and sister in laws: Sue (Don) Schroeder of Houston, TX, Mike (Sandy) Huck of North Fond du Lac, Tim (Kim) Huck of Oconto Falls, and Pat (Laurie) Huck of Fond du Lac, as well as many nieces, nephews and other relatives. She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Ed and Loretta Collien, and Joe and Viola Heimerl, as well as her father-in-law, James Huck. Thank you to the wonderful Hospice staff for their care and support over the last few weeks. To honor Diane, the family will be holding a Celebration of Life, on Thurs- day, March 3rd at Avenue 795, formerly known as the Knights of Columbus, in Fond du Lac from 4-8pm.

We would like to welcome friends and relatives of the family to share their fond memories of life. Flowers can be sent to Avenue 795 (Knights of Columbus) from 9am to 3pm on Thursday, March 3rd at: 795 Fond du Lac Avenue, Fond du Lac, WI 54935. Diane Marie Huck Tradition plus innovation leads to the tastes of today. Nowhere is that more ev- ident than in the world of cheesemaking, the heartbeat of food indus- try. Nearly 1,200 licensed cheesemakers in the state help make it the No.

1 pro- ducer of cheese, with more than 600 specialty varieties made here. In 2020, Wisconsin cheesemakers produced 3.39 billion pounds of cheese. Today, Wisconsin leads the nation with the of 796 million pounds of specialty cheeses, including but not limited to Asiago, Gorgonzola, Gruyere, aged Cheddar, Gouda, and Lim- according to the most recently published data from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Pro- tection. While perhaps the original cheese- makers who settled here brought recipes from their European homelands, cheesemakers have access to recipes from around the world. Ingredients and technology are more available, as well.

It all makes for more and better cheese. From 1970 to 2019, USDA National Ag- ricultural Statistic Service shows per capita consumption in the United States more than tripled. Our appetites for spe- cialty cheese have grown as options in- creased. roots of these cheeses are Euro- pean said Andy Johnson, as- sistant coordinator in the Cheese Indus- try and Applications Group at the Center for Dairy Research in Madison. in a lot of ways you vary the technology too much because it is cheese, but put our own spin on it.

Specialty cheese has been growing, and I think it will continue. what consumers long time for consumers to When it comes to naming cheese, tra- dition and innovation are also at play. Over the years, discussions about names have spilled over into court, as in the most recent case focusing on Gruyere. The Interprofession du and Syndicat Interprofessionel du which represents Swiss and French Gru- yere, brought the lawsuit after being de- nied a trademark. A federal judge ruled in favor of U.S.

cheesemakers in January, noting cheesemakers here can continue to use the term generically. (An appeal was expected to be Why does the name of a cheese mat- ter so much? There are several reasons, but one of the most important is con- sumers. takes a long time for consumers to learn what they like and to learn the name of the foods they said John Umhoefer, executive director of Wiscon- sin Cheese Association, which since 1957 has hosted some of the best international cheesemakers here for the World Championship Cheese Contest. This contest will be held March 1 to 3 in Madison, with results being lives- treamed this year. want the best cheese to win from wherever it came from.

You see that in the results. Winners from Europe have really dominated over the past 20 Umhoefer said. contest is really ag- nostic on where the cheese comes That mean names mat- ter, however. have one country lay claim to a name and only they can use it is trou- bling. You see the United States push back against styles where the very name of the cheese is trying to be taken back to exclusive use to Europe, particularly cheeses that have been in our standards of identity for 80 Um- hoefer said.

the case of Gruyere, we feel it is perfectly reasonable. It has a trademark in the United States. That is Le Gruyere Switzerland AOC. None of our cheesemakers can use AOC, or Appellation is the French term for protecting the style and origin of cheese or other foods. DOC, or denominazione di origine con- trollata, is its Italian counterpart.

Other cheeses, such as Parmesan, have also faced scrutiny and challenges. Parmesan can be made anywhere, but Parmigiano-Reggiano is made only in It- aly. is a type of cheese. Parmi- giano-Reggiano is a type of cheese, as well, but it has a DOC. We are not trying to take that said Francesca Auric- chio Elfner, vice president of BelGioioso Cheese Inc.

just trying to con- tinue doing what done for many BelGioioso has become known for Italian cheeses made here in Wisconsin. Elfner sees that balance of tradition and innovation play out daily. Arriving in Green Bay from Italy 43 years ago, Gianni even some of his favorite Italian cheeses here. It was all cheddar, Colby and moz- zarella in groceries. The mozzarella here was also from what he saw in Italy.

come here and say we want to make it exactly the said master cheesemaker. exactly the same as in Italy work for our here. Those traditional helped launch products with their own twists, including extra-aged Par- mesan called American Grana. is probably the one we can say we created ourselves. It did not exist.

We started basically from the roof rather than the foundation. We had to come up with everything. The cultures we use are our he said. name Artigiano, we are building something new from the current supply. In Italian it means arti- san, an artist with the passion to make something Balancing tradition with tastes of consumers has become a big factor in cheesemaking, notes.

can I keep my tradition and values and ac- commodate needs? The fact we are here and introduced other options and varie- ties has also, in my opinion, helped the Creating Over on the opposite side of the state, master cheesemaker Sid Cook is a fourth-generation cheesemaker. He started making cheese at 14, got his cheesemaking license at 16, and has won numerous awards for his Carr Valley cheeses. Cook sees endless possibilities when it comes to cheese. are literally thousands of dif- ferent cultures. We work with three dif- ferent kinds of milk: goat, cow and sheep.

You can do blends. There is a lot to invent out he said. basic cheeses that the Europeans want to cov- er in name are cheeses from a geographi- cal area where that particular natural culture was prevalent. But today, those cultures are available all over the His passion to develop has built a stellar lineup of origi- that resonate. Think Cocoa Cardo- na, an aged cheese rubbed with cocoa powder.

Or Gran Canaria, a sheep, goat, and cow milk cheese cured in olive oil. And forget his bestselling bread cheeses or seasonal styles like Winter Solstice aged cheddar, which puts grazing habits into the forefront. 25 years ago, when we started making artisan cheeses, we came up with what we called American originals. the one that started using that name, and I trademark Cook said. have a lot of cheeses.

We make more than 100 products, and we have 32 trademarks. The reason we started trademarking names, doing like the Europeans are doing and protecting our Cook sees cheesemaking as half sci- ence and half art. Yet in the end it comes down to the desire. are looking for new pro- he said. artisan cheese I made was probably in about 1979.

It was a cheese called Dariworld, a cheese that had been developed at UW in the It exactly catch on everywhere then, but it gave him a taste of possibil- ities. I bought the factory at La Val- le, I had one Cook said. really had to take a leap. Today we have seven cheese stores and 70 to 80 distrib- utors. We sell wholesale around the country.

I see a very bright future for cheese companies, and I see a bright fu- ture in have to identify it dairy is exactly what en- ticed Marieke Penterman and her hus- band, Rolf, to emigrate from Holland and open a dairy farm in Thorp in 2002. Once here, she missed the Dutch gouda known and loved so much that she de- cided to make it herself. Twenty years later, Family Cheese and Marieke Gouda have gained attention around the world. Her award- winning signature Marieke Gouda now comes in more than 20 we make is a farmstead cheese with a gouda recipe, but we felt we had the freedom to name it any Penter- man said. could have said the Dutch word for farmstead cheese, because that is what it is, but we called gouda because it has more When she later introduced a cheese she created, Marieke Golden, she learned even more about how naming plays into consumer behavior.

we introduced Golden, I real- ized how important for consumers to recognize it. They kept asking me what it tasted like. say try but they needed some comparison. Distributors would tell me, have to identify it Golden uses Parmesan cultures and a vegetable rennet, making it an option for vegetarians. She eventually started tell- ing people it is a combination of Parme- san and Gouda.

needed some Penterman said. She is overseeing an expansion on the farm that adds an aging room to accom- modate 50,000 wheels of cheese, sched- uled to be completed in March. Visitors are welcome to visit and check out view- ing areas year-round. Ripening caves are unrivaled Dairyland continues to set the bar high, and some of the credit can go to the University of Wisconsin-Madi- Center for Dairy Research, which just added a cheese cave and copper vats to continue helping cheesemakers de- velop recipes and grow. is part of our new said Andy Johnson, who also holds the role of program coordinator for the Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker program.

of Europe, the ripening caves, there is nothing like it particularly for research and development. We have 10 ripening rooms or aging caves, each with their own controlled environment. be able to make any style of have they call it, all the parameters for a recipe or a record of what Johnson continued. be able to do that in the aging room as well, (monitoring) humid- ity, air and exchange. From a re- search point, this is state of the art Another of the new facility is that it is fully licensed and inspected, and Johnson sees possibilities for cheesemakers to produce and create there.

your operation is costly, so they can get the product going and age it with Johnson said. have a cut- and-wrap room, and the cheese can be sold. a huge advantage, a game Noting how far the industry has come, Johnson also has big hopes for the future of artisan and specialty cheese. or thirty years ago the cheese quality at an artisan level was not as good as it is he said. on par in a lot of ways with a lot of cheeses in Europe.

That is not surprising as our industry matures. We get better and better. Maybe one day be importing American cheese to Wisconsin cheesemakers fret territorial claims Kristine M. Kierzek Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel USA TODAY NETWORK WISCONSIN Staff members make cheese in a copper-lined vat at the Center for Dairy Research. of Europe, the ripening caves, there is nothing like it particularly for research and says the Andy Johnson.

PROVIDED BY THE CENTER FOR DAIRY RESEARCH.