Jerry Apps - Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker

Casper Jaggi

Other Badger Biographies

Belle and Bob La Follette: Partners in Politics

Blue Jenkins: Working for Workers

Caroline Quarlls and the Underground Railroad

Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker

Cindy Bentley: Spirit of a Champion

Cordelia Harvey: Civil War Angel

Curly Lambeau: Building the Green Bay Packers

Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes

Father Groppi: Marching for Civil Rights

Frank Lloyd Wright and His New American Architecture

Gaylord Nelson: Champion for Our Earth

Harley and the Davidsons: Motorcycle Legends

Joyce Westerman: Baseball Hero

Les Paul: Guitar Wizard

Lucius Fairchild: Civil War Hero

Mai Yas Long Journey

Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art

Mountain Wolf Woman: A Ho-Chunk Girlhood

Ole Evinrude and His Outboard Motor

A Recipe for Success: Lizzie Kander and Her Cookbook

Richard Bong: World War II: Flying Ace

Tents, Tigers, and the Ringling Brothers

Casper Jaggi

Master Swiss Cheese Maker

JERRY APPS

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Publishers since 1855

2008 by State Historical Society of Wisconsin

E-book edition 2014

Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by a gift from Mrs. Harvey E. Vick of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

For permission to reuse material from Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker, (ISBN 978-0-87020-392-3; e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-522-4), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

wisconsin history .org

All images are courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society unless otherwise indicated. Photographs identified with WHi are from the Societys collections; address inquiries about these photos to the Visual Materials Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706.

Designed by Emily Korsmo

13 12 11 10 09 2 3 4 5 6

Front cover: Casper Jaggi and his wheels of Swiss cheese, Wisconsin Historical Society, WHi Image ID 33258.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Apps, Jerold W., 1934

Casper Jaggi : master Swiss cheese maker / Jerry Apps.

p. cm.(Badger biographies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87020-392-3 1. Jaggi, Casper, 18931971Juvenile literature. 2. CheesemakersWisconsinGreen CountyBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. Swiss cheeseHistoryJuvenile literature. I. Title.

SF272.S9.A77 2008

637'.3092dc22

[B]

2007037325

To the untiring generations of Wisconsin cheese makers who continue to produce the best cheese in the world and to the dairy farmers who provide the tons of milk necessary for making the billions of pounds of cheese Wisconsin produces each year.

Contents

Meet Casper Jaggi

Americas Dairyland. Those two words on Wisconsin license plates tell you a lot about the state and its agricultural . As you drive along country roads in Wisconsin, youll see barns and cows grazing in fields nearby. Some of their milk becomes something you drink. Some of the milk is used to make cheese.

A Wisconsin license plate

who settled in Wisconsin more than 100 years ago brought their cheese-making traditions with them. One of them was Casper Jaggi (kas pur yah gee), who came from Switzerland and moved to Green County. To this day, that part of the state is famous for its cheese.

Casper Jaggi in his Brodhead Swiss Cheese Factory with Kenneth Clark (wearing the hat), one of his workers.

Casper became an at making Swiss cheese and produced a lot of it. He eventually owned the largest Swiss cheese factory in Wisconsin in the 1950s.

. It also continued a family tradition. When he was a little boy, Casper learned about cheese making from his father. Casper later passed these skills on to his son, Fritz, when Fritz also was just a young boy.

Casper Jaggi is an example of the many immigrant cheese makers who came to Wisconsin with special skills and contributed greatly to the states agricultural history. He and others like him set the pace for the cheese makers in Wisconsin today.

Caspers Swiss Traditions Find a New Home

Casper Jaggi was born in Europe on August 13, 1893, in Nessenthal, Bern, Switzerland. Back then, Canton Bern was well known for its cheese, especially Swiss cheese. Even today, Swiss cheese making is common in Canton Bern.

Switzerlands cantons in 1893. Casper came from Canton Bern.

A scene from the Swiss Alps. Casper used milk from his familys cows when he first made cheese in the mountains.

Casper was just 6 years old when his father started teaching him the many steps involved in making cheese. Each spring, when the snow melted in the their cattle into the mountains to graze on the lush pastures. They spent summers up there, caring for their cows and making cheese from the milk. They had no electricity and worked by the light of a lantern or candlelight in the evenings. The water they needed came from streams and waterfalls. The Jaggis burned wood or coal to heat the kettles used to make their Swiss cheese. When Casper was little, he had to stand on a tree stump so he could look into the kettle!

In early fall, winter winds and snow began threatening. Thats when the Jaggis drove their cattle back down to the valley where they spent the long winter. Casper and his father patiently waited for spring and the green grass. Then they could once more return their cattle to the high country.

Caspers mother died when he was very young, leaving his father to raise him. Casper helped his father with the cows and with cheese making for several years. His father taught him that Swiss cheese should taste like a green nut when its in the kettle. Later, when it was aged, it should taste like a ripe nut. As Casper grew older, he his skills as a cheese maker. But Casper learned about cheese making one skill at a time.