Oxford cheese trail a tasty destination: Andrew Coppolino

You might not think southwestern Ontario is a cheese Mecca in the way Normandy is for camembert or Emilia-Romagna is for parmigiano-reggiano.

However, if you trace the trail of curds and whey, the fact is that Ontario and specifically Oxford County was at one time one of the most important centres of cheese manufacturing in Canada.

That status was nearly 400 years in the making, and although cheese production has shrunken significantly over the past century, Oxford County continues to call itself the Dairy Capital of Ontario.

1200 Cheddar factories

• EXTERNAL LINK: IngersollCheese & Agricultural Museum

In the early 1600s, French settlers brought dairy cattle to what is now Canada. Milk from the cows was used to make cheese which was usually the responsibility ofa farmer's wifeand this cottage industry was the cheese-making tradition until commercialforces began to change the dairy landscape.

A couple of hundred years later, with the industrial revolution well underway, cheese-making became a factory processand Oxford County became home to nearly halfof the 200 or so cheese factories in Canada. For instance, Bright Cheese and Butteron County Road 22 inBright (between New Hamburg and Stratford)was established in 1874and is still producing cheese at the same spot where it started 142 years ago.

This remarkable production capacity put Canada in good stead when it came to cheese exporting: as we entered the 20thcentury, Canada had about 2,300 cheese factories, and Ontario alone had roughly 1,200 Cheddar factories.

A billion glasses of milk

In the early 1900s, cheddar cheese became the country's second largest export.

Ontario was supplying half of the cheddar cheese about 52 per cent that was imported into England, according to archival documents of the Norwich and District Historical Society (May, 1987). That's a significant accomplishment especially since the village of Cheddar, in Somerset, England, is where cheddar cheese (and the "cheddaring" process that makes it) originated.

Today, Oxford County produces 286 million litres of milk, which is equivalent to 1.14 billion glasses. Huge volumes of milk are used to make cheese, withroughly 10 litres of milkneeded to produce 1 kilogramof cheese.

In terms of smaller cheese producers, industrial, societal and management practices had a significant impact on the industry across Canada. Today's cheese production in Oxford County includes the industrial giants Agropur of Longueuil,and Saputo of Montreal (Quebec, by the way, supplies Canada with about 45 percent of the cheese it consumes).

But there are traces of those turn-of-the-century Oxford County producers:for instance, the former Brownsville Cheese (for awhile,aCanadian manufacturer of powdered milk), Delmer Cheese and Salford Cheese companies.

Today's"artisanal" producers have evolved from recently-relaxed rules for milk management: on-farm cheese-making in limited amounts and on a relatively small scale takes place at cheese-makers such as Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese in Woodstock, Ont., and at Mountainoak Cheese in New Hamburg.

Both locations both making Swiss-inspired cheeses use milk they take directly from their dairy cows on site. In a sense, it harkens back to a much earlier "dairy farmer's wife" scenario.

Industry decline

More than 100 years ago, producers recognized efficiencies and economies of scale and centralized their businesses to create cheese co-ops. In the mid-1860s, when there were no milk quotas, Harvey Farrington collected Oxford County milk, made cheese and gave the farmers a set price per pound. It made sense.

The number of smaller factories declined over the decadesas processing, transportation, pasteurization and refrigeration practices improved and became more efficient and centralized. Automobiles would eventually mean that consumers could travel to purchase groceries, including milk, and smaller regional dairies were phased out, such as those at the corner of Lancaster Avenue and Breithaupt Street in Kitchener, and on the location of the current Ethel's Lounge on King Street in Waterloo.

In 1961, there were 1,700 dairies in Canada; by 1998 there were 270. Where Canada once exported roughly 106,000 tonnes of cheese in 1904, the country's export number had fallen to 18,600 tonnes by 1997. Canadaimports about 20,000 tonnes of cheese annually.

In the early 1970s, a quota system came into existence, regulating how much milk could be supplied and how much cheese could be made from it. That affected cheese production, but ensured that everyone received the same high quality milk that is tested and monitored.

Supplymanagement means Canadian milk is more expensive the theoretical "cost"of a Canadian dairy cow is $30,000 under the quota system and Ontario cheese makers have to pay nearly three times the current world price for milk to make their cheese.

Oxford County Cheese Trail

• EXTERNAL LINK: Oxford County Cheese Trail

Despite the factors that have changed Ontario cheese manufacturing, artisanal producers have carved out a niche for themselves. What is known as theOxford County Cheese Trailis the proof in the pudding (or the rennet in the milk). There are several cheese-makers on the trail throughout Woodstock, Ingersoll and Tillsonburg, with about 20 different stops from museums to retail stores to dairy tours and restaurants featuring local cheese.

Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese, Mountainoak Cheese, Local Dairy and Bright Cheese and Butter are a few examples that have grown and are thriving. Relatively close by are C'est Bon Cheese and Stonetown Artisan Cheese in St. Marys, and Montforte and Transvaal Farm in Stratford, Ont. Many of their cheeses are available throughout southwestern Ontario, including in Waterloo Region.

This summer, take a trip on the trail to experience both the historical past of Ontario cheese-making and its current status in what American author Clifton Fadiman called "milk's leap towards immortality."