Fresh Cheese is Closer Than You Think

Americans are known for loving cheese.  We put cheese on everything, we eat it plan, we cram it into an aerosol can and squirt i onto crackers.  Many of us probably find it hard to imagine going an entire week without the solidified dairy product.

While Purdue lies around 3 hours from the cheese aficionado’s paradise, also known as Wisconsin, good cheese fresh from the source is a lot closer to campus than what you’d think.

Fair Oaks Farms is only a 45 minute drive north from campus.  While this might be a little far for an afternoon drive, it’s placement just off of I-65 makes it the perfect pit stop during a trip from campus to Chicago.

There are a couple different areas of the complex offering very different experiences.  If a visitor wants to get upclose and personal with the cheese making process, they’re invited to check out the “Adventure Center“.  Here they’ll experience anything from the milk extraction process to the birthing of a cow (80-100 are born everyday).

Fair Oaks offers another option for those on a time constraint, the cafe and tasting room.  Here patrons will find a variety of cheeses they can try, along with several meal and snack items, all made with Fair Oaks Farms cheeses.  Crowd favorites tend to be the grilled cheese sandwich and the milkshakes.  This area of the complex also sells prepackaged cheese and other branded merchandise.

During my trip to Fair Oaks Farm, I sampled around a dozen cheeses and tried the steak quesadilla.  The havarti dill and farmer’s cheese were my two favorites.  However, after seeing my friends enjoy their grilled cheese sandwiches, I’ll probably get that meal instead of Mexican next time around.