Uplands Cheese, Inc.

Owned and operated by the Hatch and Mericka families, the farm has a legacy of over a hundred years of dairy farming. Andy and Scott, who began as apprentices under founders Mike Gingrich and Dan Patenaude, purchased the farm in 2014. The farm's history is rooted in the pioneering work of rotational grazing, influenced by Jeanne Patenaude's brother, Bill Murphy, an agronomist at the University of Vermont. The farm's location on Pleasant Ridge in the Uplands region of Wisconsin is ideal for producing high-quality milk, which led to the creation of Pleasant Ridge Reserve in 2000.

The farm employs rotational grazing, allowing cows to graze on lush pastures from early spring through fall. Cows are supplemented with a ground grain mixture comprising 25% of their ration while on pasture. The cheese is made only when cows are fully on a forage ration of vegetative pasture, ensuring the flavors of the pasture grasses, herbs, wildflowers, and clovers are detectable in each morsel. The farm's approach to cheesemaking is traditional, using fresh, raw, grass-fed milk during the grazing season.

Andy Hatch studied Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on grass-based dairy farming, while Scott Mericka studied agronomy and grass-based dairy farming at Warren Wilson College. The farm produces two traditional, artisan cheeses: Pleasant Ridge Reserve, made with grass-fed milk in the summer months, and Rush Creek Reserve, made in the fall when the cows' diet changes to hay. The farm's cheeses have been recognized on platforms like Top Chef, and they offer free shipping on orders of $100 or more.