Why does Pine Island have a cheese festival? It traces back to the early 1900s – Post Bulletin
PINE ISLAND, Minn. — Susan Bringgold filled her heart with cheese.
She started the trade of cheesemaking with her father in Switzerland before immigrating to the United States and creating different cheese varieties with her husband Jacob in Pine Island. The two are noted as the first cheesemakers in town along with Hub Irish and George Lee.
Community members made Swiss and brick cheese in their homes with wash boilers and cheese kettles. The operations were small, “often just a cheesemaker and his wife,” and kept close to their farm to avoid milk spoilage, wrote Frederick L. Johnson in his book, “Goodhue County, Minnesota: A Narrative History.”
For decades in the 1900s, Arthur Parkin worked to boost the dairy industry. He created a 6,000-pound cheese with local cheese factories. He founded 38 new cheese factories in eight years. He became the state’s first dairy and food inspector. But World War I and fluctuating cheese prices in the years following were hard on farmers.
“By 1936, Pine Island, although known for its high quality affordable cheese, found business lagging. Area producers admonished everyone to ‘Eat more cheese!’” wrote Patricia Mapel of the Pine Island News Record. “Through the years the annual Cheese Fest celebration has served to not only remind all of the proud heritage established by the original Swiss cheesemakers, but also as an occasion to honor local citizens for their contributions to the community.”
Today, from a packet of Cheese Festival notes, Doris Glamm, Pine Island Area Historical Society executive director, noted the movie stars who promoted the town with a Cheese Festival button. The tradition of cheese and the carnival have continued through the “hometown event” and “community festival,” Glamm and Pine Island Cheese Festival Board president Terrilynn Twaddle said.
“Of course, it was developed because of the dairy industry in the area, and it…
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