Al Bekkum calls the sharp turn his career path took toward cheesemaking "the luck of the draw." Laid off from a construction job one fall, he landed a job at Westby Coop Creamery. His plan was to work there through the winter until construction season resumed in the spring. Once exposed to cheesemaking, however, that plan changed.  Today, 20 years later, Bekkum is building Nordic Creamery into a successful Wisconsin artisan dairy company known for its award-winning goat's-milk and mixed-milk cheeses as well as a new line of specialty organic butters.

Founded three years ago by Al and his wife, Sarah, Nordic Creamery is a family business in the truest sense. "We live on Sarah's family farm, which is located between Westby and Coon Valley and has been in the family for generations" he says. "We started Nordic because we wanted to build something that we could pass on to our children -- five boys and a girl, who range in age from 16 to 3. The four oldest boys already help with the business a lot. We're converting the farm back to a dairy farm and are in the process of building a milking parlor and cheese plant on the farm. We expect both to be operational by next spring."

In the meantime, Bekkum, who in addition to Westby Coop Creamery spent several years making cheese and supervising production at Mt. Sterling Cheese Co-op, makes his cheese at either Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain, Wis., or at K&K Cheese in Cashton, Wis. Some 15 different varieties are currently made. Most are goat-milk based, but Bekkum says that Nordic's blended milk cheeses, made from a mix of goat milk and cow milk, have become his best sellers. "We started out making all goat cheese," he says, "but we found that a lot of people are still reluctant to try goat cheese. So we decided to do a blended specialty and came up with our signature cheese, Capriko, a semi-hard cheese with a smooth, sweet, nutty flavor. It's made in a process similar to Cheddar, but is varied to give it a unique flavor profile. It's a natural rind, cave-aged cheese and comes both plain and naturally smoked. Most Capriko is aged six months, but we also do Capriko Reserve, which we age out for a year."

Other specialties at Nordic include aged and mild goat's milk Cheddar; Feddost, a Norwegian-inspired cheese made from goat and cow milk and favored with cumin and cloves; and Mountain Jack, a semi-soft, creamy goat milk cheese that, like Capriko, is available plain and naturally smoked. Grumpy Goat is a semi-hard but still creamy goat milk cheese aged more than a year for robust flavor and Sarah Select is a semi-soft blended milk cheese. Both Capriko Reserve and Sarah Select, available in several flavors, picked up top awards at recent domestic and international cheese competitions.

Once the on-farm plant is up and running in spring 2011, Bekkum plans to introduce Nordic's own signature style of Norwegian Jarlsburg.

While most of his cheeses are sold to specialty retailers and chefs in the Midwest, Nordic has developed a national following, as well. "We have stores and restaurants from California to New York to Texas that carry our products," he says.

In addition to being a skilled cheesemaker, Bekkum is also an artisan butter maker. Introduced to the market in fall 2009, Nordic Creamery organic grass-based Summer Butter is made seasonally at Sassy Cow Creamery near Sun Prairie, Wis. "We just made our first batch for the 2010 season this week (early May), because the cows are back out on pasture," he says. Bekkum churns between 50 and 60 pounds of butter at a time and hand packs it into 12-ounce tubs. He's also now making goat-milk butter each week and is experimenting with sheep-milk butter, as well.

A member of WSCI since March 2009, Bekkum says the joining the group has been extremely beneficial for his growing business. "The networking with other cheesemakers and having access to so much experience through WSCI has been very helpful. We've gained so much since joining."

For more information on Nordic Creamery, visit www.nordicreamery.com.