Caves of Faribault facts for kids

The Caves of Faribault is a special company in Faribault, Minnesota, that makes delicious artisan cheese. They use natural sandstone caves to help their cheese get its amazing flavor. This process is called aging. The company makes different kinds of cheese, including several types of blue cheese, Gouda, and cheddar. They use milk that has not been heated (called raw milk) from local farms.

A Brief History of the Cheese Caves

The story of the Caves of Faribault began a long time ago. In 1936, a company called Treasure Cave Cheese Company opened in Faribault. It was the first company in the United States to make blue cheese for sale. They used the natural caves and some man-made tunnels in the sandstone cliffs to age their cheese.

During World War II, Treasure Cave helped Minnesota become a very important place for making blue cheese. The company did well for many years. However, starting in 1965, the company was sold several times. In 1990, a large company bought it and then closed the cheese plant.

But the story didn't end there! In 2001, a person named Jeff Jirik and two others who used to work for the old company decided to bring the cheese caves back to life. They started a new company called Faribault Dairy Company, Inc. By 2002, they were making the original Treasure Cave blue cheese again, but they called it AmaBlu.

They made cheese using raw milk from local farms. This milk was carefully checked to make sure it was safe and good quality. A few years later, they started aging other types of cheese, like cheddar, in the caves too. The special sandstone in the caves helps give the cheese its unique smell and taste.

In 2010, a group of dairy farms called Swiss Valley Farms bought Faribault Dairy. They changed the name to The Caves of Faribault. Today, the plant processes a huge amount of milk each week. This milk turns into about 20,000 pounds of delicious cheese!

The Amazing Geology of the Caves

The caves used for aging cheese are very old. They were formed at the end of the last ice age. When the giant glaciers melted, they uncovered thick layers of rock called Saint Peter Sandstone. This type of sandstone is mostly found in states like Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri.

Ancient rivers cut through this sandstone, creating tall cliffs. You can see these cliffs in Faribault, which is about fifty miles south of Minneapolis. Faribault is located in the Cannon River Valley. A smaller river, the Straight River, flows through the city. It carved a hundred-foot-high cliff in the Saint Peter Sandstone.

In 1836, a person named Alexander Faribault set up a trading post where the Cannon and Straight Rivers meet. The city of Faribault is named after him. Many mills were built near the rivers' waterfalls to make things like flour, lumber, and wool.

How Caves Helped Brewing Beer

The city of Faribault also attracted two brothers, Ernst and Gottfried Fleckenstein. They were German immigrants whose family had been brewers since 1577. In 1855, the brothers opened a small brewery in St. Paul. Two years later, they moved to Faribault. They built the Fleckenstein Brewery on the east side of the city, right next to the Straight River and its sandstone cliff.

German brewers brought a different way of making beer to the United States. They made "lager" beer, which needs cool temperatures to ferment. In Germany, brewers often used caves or deep cellars to store their lager beer because these places stayed cool all the time.

The Fleckenstein brothers knew the Saint Peter Sandstone was perfect for this. They used the natural caves in the Straight River cliffs to brew and age their beer. In 1872, the brothers went their separate ways, and Gottfried Fleckenstein continued the brewery with his sons. However, the brewery eventually closed in 1902 because of new laws and strong competition.

Blue Cheese and the Caves

Making cheese and brewing beer actually need similar conditions. Both need steady temperatures and humidity levels. The Saint Peter Sandstone caves provide perfect conditions all year round. They stay at about 52.5 degrees Fahrenheit and have almost 100% humidity.

The sandstone is also very strong. Its natural arch-shaped caverns made it possible to build even bigger caves for aging beer and cheese.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, American cheesemakers started trying to make "foreign type" cheeses. These included Edam, Gouda, and Swiss cheese. The city of Monroe, Wisconsin, even became known as the "Swiss cheese capital of America."

During World War I, it was hard to get French cheeses like Roquefort. So, the U.S. Department of Agriculture started researching how to make a similar cheese from cow's milk. But it wasn't until the 1920s that serious work began to connect cow's milk blue cheese with natural cave aging.

The University of Minnesota, along with the cities of St. Paul and Faribault, were leaders in developing blue cheese in the U.S. In 1933, Professor Willes Barnes Combs from the University of Minnesota found a way to use the sandstone caves in St. Paul for making cheese. After two years of testing, he announced his success in 1935. The University of Minnesota even launched its own Roquefort Cheese Caves. Soon after, newspapers in St. Paul reported that a new blue cheese business was starting in Faribault.

Felix Frederiksen was another important person in this story. He discovered Roquefort cheese while in France during World War I. This cheese is made from sheep's milk and aged in natural limestone caves. After the war, Frederiksen wanted to make American Roquefort-style cheese. He became a food scientist.

In the mid-1930s, Frederiksen and his wife traveled through Iowa and Minnesota. They were looking for the perfect place to make, age, and store blue cheese. In 1935, they arrived in Faribault. They bought the old Fleckenstein Brewery property and started the Treasure Cave Cheese Company in 1936. Even though the University of Minnesota made the first test batches, Frederiksen's company was the first to make blue cheese commercially in the United States.

The arched caves, along with the very pure Saint Peter Sandstone, created a special environment for aging cheese. The stone's slight acidity helps prevent bad bacteria from growing. Also, water can easily move through the stone, which helps keep the caves just right. The bluff covering the cave constantly pulls moisture out, creating a slow movement of water that is perfect for cheese.

In 2001, when Faribault Dairy reopened the caves, they cleaned the sandstone. They found that some high corners of the ceilings had different colored surfaces. These were molds and yeasts from the old beer and cheese businesses! They decided not to remove these tiny organisms. Their presence actually helps give the company's cheese its unique taste and qualities.

Awards and Recognition

Since 2001, The Caves of Faribault has won many awards. These include state, national, and even international honors. For example, in 2014, they won Good Food Awards for their Jeffs' Select Gouda and St. Pete's Select Blue Cheese. In 2013, their Jeffs' Select cheese won a Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation award for being an amazing cheese or dairy product.