Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics Wins Best of Class For Retail Packaging of Petit Frère Cheese
3/31/2009
It’s said that good things come in small packages, and Wisconsin’s Crave brothers can vouch for that: Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics won the Best of Class Award for Retail Packaging, for their 8-ounce Petit Frère cheese at the 2009 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest.
The Petit Frère package, which took top honors against competitors from coast to coast, is a keepsake round wooden box decorated with original artwork that depicts a young boy and a cow.
Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics also took several other awards at the prestigious contest:
- 4th place for Mascarpone
- 4th place for String Cheese
- 5th place for Fresh Mozzarella
The U.S. Championship Cheese Contest held March 17-19, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, drew over 1,300 entries, making it the largest cheese competition ever held in the United States.
Petit Frère and Les Frères are original artisan cheeses created by the Crave brothers at their farmstead cheese operation. The farm is operated by four Crave brothers, Charles, George, Thomas and Mark and their families. The cheese plant is headed by George, a licensed cheesemaker, and his wife, Debbie. Les Frères and Petit Frère have won national and international awards for their exceptional taste and quality.
Petit Frère (French for "little brother"), is an 8-ounce version of Les Frères, the family’s award-winning signature product. Les Frères (lay frair, French for "the brothers"), a European-style cheese inspired by the family’s Irish-French ancestry, is made in small batches, cellar cured and washed in a brine solution to develop a complex flavor and creamy texture. The 2-pound wheels of Les Frères are parchment wrapped.
With roots dating back to the 1890s, the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association-sponsored biennial contest is the country’s largest, longest-running cheese competition.
The Crave brothers and their families jointly operate a showplace dairy. Seeking to add value to the milk produced by their 900 highly productive Holsteins, the Craves decided to make their own cheese, with the farm’s ultra-fresh milk pumped directly into their cheese plant. Since regular production began in 2002, the Craves have produced a small, top-quality selection of specialty cheeses, including Mascarpone, Fresh Mozzarella, Oaxaca, Farmer’s Rope String cheese and Les Frères and its little brother, Petit Frère.
