Cows have grazed for over 100 years on the land where Uplands Cheese is located in Southern Wisconsin. The region has a deep history of cheese making knowledge, much of which has been passed down from the alpine cheese makers who emigrated there over the past two hundred years. Uplands Cheese is now owned and operated by two families, Andy and Caitlin Hatch, and Scott and Liana Mericka. Andy and Scott began as apprentices under the previous generation of owners – Uplands Cheese founder’s Mike Gingrich and Dan Patenaude. In 2014, the Hatch and Mericka families purchased the farm from the founders, ensuring the future of a dairy farm. The cheese made at Uplands, Pleasant Ridge Reserve (named after the land formation on which the farm sits), is the most awarded
cheese in American history.