Company Spotlight: Dorothy's Cheese

"Cheese with real character" is the best way to describe Dorothy's Cheese!

The company's namesake, Dorothy Demeter, was born into the cheesemaking business in 1933. Her grandfather Fred Kolb immigrated from France in 1898 and opened a cheesemaking company in beautiful Lena, Illinois.

Dorothy worked in the dairy most of her life and her passion for cheesemaking helped her to become the first woman in America to earn a degree in dairy science!

Dorothy's Cheese's official website says that "Dorothy fell in love with cows, specifically, the tender, sweet-smelling animals at her grandfather’s Illinois creamery. The creamery soon grew into Kolb-Lena, the loveliest (and first) European-style cheesery in the American Midwest. Dorothy joined quickly to the cheese-making world, working at Kolb-Lena before and after school. Whether it was helping with the cheese or tending to the bees for her family’s honey company, her spunk always shined through. And her parents never had to tell her to say cheese, she smiled just being around it."

The Dorothy line of cheeses is made in Lena, Illinois, the original location of Dorothy's family's creamery. The RBST-free cow's milk used to make the cheese comes from farms local to the creamery. The cooperative that the milk is purchased from adheres to the FARM program, which ensures that the dairy cows live in a healthy environment.

The Kolb-Lena dairy was purchased by Savencia Cheese and in 2017, they released the Dorothy Cheese line, inspired by Dorothy and her pioneering spirit in the male-dominated cheesemaking industry. She passed away in 2019.

Dorothy's head cheesemaker, Bob, began as an apprentice at the creamery and is passionate about carrying on Dorothy's legacy of creamy textures.

The flower shape of Dorothy's cheeses is inspired by the beautiful spring flowers of the Apple River Canyon in Illinois!

Dorothy was known to work tirelessly perfecting her soft-ripened cheeses. Dorothy's cheeses are Dorothy's Comeback Cow, Dorothy's Keep Dreaming, Doorothy's Holy Smoke, and Dorothy's Diggin' Truffles! They are all creamy soft-ripened cow cheese, each carrying additional flavors such as vegetable ash and truffles. The care for their product is remarkable; during the cheesemaking process they dip, coat, and wrap all by hand!

Enjoy pure deliciousness with Dorothy's cheese😊