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Since 1961, Renard’s Cheese has been handcrafting Wisconsin artisan cheese, perfecting the art and science of cheesemaking and passing down the knowledge from generation to generation. Our rich history enables us to continue producing the highest quality cheese in the heart of America’s Dairyland. We invite you to learn more about our family’s story and why Door County plays such a significant role in our cheese.
The origins of cheesemaking in the Renard family
Renard’s Rosewood Dairy was founded by Howard Renard, who was born in 1928. His father Fred Renard was a farmer and milk hauler. Howard would ride alongside his father when he drove his milk routes for Fontaine’s Cheese Factory.
At the young age of thirteen, Howard began learning the trade of cheesemaking at Fontaine’s and worked at other Door County dairies making cheese for about 20 years. In 1947, he married Angela Bushee, and they raised seven children together. In 1961, they purchased Rosewood Dairy, a small cheese plant in Algoma, Wisconsin.
Rosewood Dairy: The first factory
At the time, the operation was modest, producing raw milk cheese in two small vats within cramped quarters that also served as living space for the Renard family.
Rosewood Dairy’s two vats held about 10,000 pounds of milk each. They ran about 16,000 pounds of milk per day. It takes approximately 10 pounds of milk to produce one pound of cheese, so, at that time, Rosewood Dairy was producing 1,600 pounds of cheese per day. The milk came from about 50 local farms and was hauled to the factory by either the farmers or Howard’s young boys.
Renard’s artisan cheese is still handcrafted to this day, which requires a lot of physical labor. But back then, it was even more labor intensive. The boiler in the factory was fired by coal. Shoveling coal into the boiler to keep it burning and producing the steam needed for the cheesemaking process was a huge task in itself!
A small business making a big impact
In 1966, Gary Renard, one of Howard’s sons, purchased Cloverleaf Cheese Factory on County DK—when he still had three weeks of high school left! After graduating, Gary ran the dairy factory, producing the same specialty cheese as his father Howard.
Between the two dairies, Rosewood and Cloverleaf, the business grew to the point that they needed to add a cold storage building to store excess cheese. In 1968, just a couple years after the purchase of Cloverleaf, the cold storage building was constructed at Rosewood Dairy. The building could hold approximately one semi load of cheese.
In 1975, Gary and his wife Bonnie turned Cloverleaf Dairy into a retail store. Just a year later, Howard and Angela built a store next to Rosewood Dairy. This allowed travelers on their way to Door County from both main highways to enjoy Renard’s cheese. Soon, visitors craved the diverse range of artisanal cheeses, and the fresh cheese curds became well known and popular among tourists.
1980 was an exciting time for Renard’s Cheese. The family decided to start marketing their cheese, and the marketing was so successful that they had to buy cheese from other little factories to meet demand! This led to there being so much cheese that they eventually outgrew the cold storage facility they had previously built, which had already been expanded to hold 5 semi loads of cheese!
Meet Chris, our Master Cheesemaker
Gary’s son Chris, the current owner of Renard’s Cheese, was schooled in cheesemaking from the time he could tie his shoes. He likes to say that an empty milk vat was his play pen! Upon graduation from Southern Door High School, Chris earned a degree in Business and Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and he spent a few years working as a buyer for SuperValu. However, the family business called him home, and in 1995, Chris returned to making cheese with his father and grandfather.
Chris had a lot of fresh ideas that he wanted to bring to the factory. He enhanced the business by introducing String Cheese, which hadn’t been produced before. It was quite tricky and took a lot of diligence on Chris’ part, but he perfected the manufacturing. Today, String Cheese is one of our award-winning and most popular cheeses!
In 2014, Chris obtained his Master Cheesemaking certification, which has allowed us to market our cheese to a wider audience. This designation is a prestigious title; there are less than 70 Master Cheesemakers in the United States!
The Master Cheesemaker program is a rigorous course of study that requires a minimum of 10 years of licensed cheesemaking experience before one can even be considered for admittance. Once accepted, the program includes coursework taught by some of the most accomplished educators in the cheese community, an apprenticeship, and a final 40 hour written examination.
Chris earned his certifications in Cheddar and Mozzarella. He even has plans to go back to the program to receive additional designations! Under his leadership, Renard’s Cheese continues to produce some of the highest quality cheese in Wisconsin.
Where we are today
While Renard’s Cheese initially focused on producing standard commodity cheeses, under Chris’ ownership and guidance, the selections of cheese have grown to include Cheddar, Colby, Farmers, Muenster, Brick, Marble, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, String, Smoked String, and over 50 flavor-infused specialty cheeses!
In July 2010, Chris’ wife Ann joined the family business, leaving behind a successful career in business management. The couple saw magnificent opportunities for innovation and growth while building upon their family’s legacy. They purchased the Cloverleaf retail store from Chris’ family, and just two years later, they built a new retail store that allowed them to not only continue marketing their cheese but other Door County products as well! Another short two years later, in 2014, Chris and Ann purchased the store in Algoma and all the shares of Rosewood Dairy.
Production grew 600% within two years, and the growth of the business enabled them to go from just six employees in 2010 to over 70 today! Currently, we produce approximately 3 million pounds of cheese a year, using 30 million pounds of milk—that’s nearly 2,000 times the production from the beginning! But we’re not stopping there—within the next few years, we plan to expand our factory, which will allow for another 400% production increase.
The Door County difference
Rich nutrients in Door County’s soil creates lush grazing land for dairy cows, who produce the high-quality milk that Renard’s Cheese is known for. Our milk is sourced from local Door County family farms, and is non-GMO and rBST/rBGH-free.
Sustainability is one of our values, and there is no waste in the cheesemaking process. The cream that separates is transported to a local dairy where it is used for making butter. The whey is shipped to a whey processing plant where it is the main ingredient for a high-grade feed for farm animals. The water that is generated during cheesemaking is delivered back into the environment, enriching the soil for local farmland in a safe and effective way.
If it weren’t for the high-quality milk produced by local Door County farms, our cheese wouldn’t be nearly as special or decadent. It’s this key ingredient that separates not only from the rest of the cheese on store shelves, but even from other cheesemakers within Wisconsin.
While many things have changed through the generations, the Renard’s recipe and tradition remain the same. This precise cheesemaking art has awarded the Renard family not only a reputation of high standards and quality technique, but also a delicious, specialty product that they are proud to put their name on.
We invite you to explore our wide variety of artisanal cheeses, and we’re happy to welcome you into our retail store in Sturgeon Bay where you can enjoy free cheese and fudge samples, a deli that serves homestyle meals with some of our award-winning cheeses, and other local Door County goods. Stop by today to taste the Door County difference!
