Waterloo, WI — On Thursday, August 9, Chef Jason Dunn of Lewis Station Winery in Lake Mills, WI, proved that sometimes bigger can be better, as he and four assistants built the U.S. record Caprese Salad. The 32-foot-long version, made with fresh Wisconsin ingredients, included 35 pounds of award-winning Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics Fresh Mozzarella. Lewis Station Winery’s giant caprese salad also featured 34 quarts of locally sourced tomatoes, 3 pounds of locally grown basil (four different types), 2 quarts of olive oil, and 1 quart of balsamic vinegar.
“The United States’ Record Caprese Salad is a Wisconsin record at 32 feet long,” Chef Dunn says. The previous caprese salad record-holder was a 24-foot-long version, made in San Diego. The 150 salad-lovers attending the event enjoyed $10 servings of “The Mother of All Caprese Salads,” each paired with a glass of rosé wine. A portion of the evening’s proceeds was donated to Club 55 at Lake Mills Senior Center.
Chef Dunn says the idea for the creating the Record Caprese Salad in the U.S. arose out of a conversation he had with cheese maker George Crave last year. “I really love to work with Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese. George and I threw the idea around because we have such beautiful tomatoes here in August, and we enjoy serving Crave Brothers Fresh Mozzarella weekly on our menu.”
Licensed cheesemaker George Crave oversees the making of all the Crave Brothers handcrafted artisan cheeses. “Caprese salad is such a good way to use our fresh mozzarella that we thought it would be fun to do it in a big way,” he says. Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese is sustainably produced in the family’s own farmstead cheese-making facility that practices water conservation, recycling, and uses 100 percent green power. The anaerobic biodigester produces enough electricity to power the Crave Brothers Farm, the farmstead cheese-making plant, and over 300 homes in their community.
The caprese salad featured several varieties of Crave Brothers Fresh Mozzarella, including perline size small mozzarella balls, Marinated Fresh Mozzarella, and Fresh Mozzarella Medallions. Crave Brothers Fresh Mozzarella is also available in 8-ounce and 1-pound balls, 1-pound logs, and containers of small mozzarella balls in four sizes—pearl, cherry, golf ball and egg sizes. At the recent 2018 Wisconsin State Fair Dairy Products Contest, Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics Marinated Mozzarella won a First Place Award, and also took First Place honors in the 2018 World Cheese Championships. Like other Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, Fresh Mozzarella is made with milk from the family’s own dairy herd in a farmstead cheese-making facility.
Visit the website at www.cravecheese.com for other salad recipes featuring Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, product information about the award-winning line of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, and videos highlighting the Crave Brothers green story.
The Crave family farms 2,500 acres of productive land in south-central Wisconsin, growing soybeans, corn and alfalfa to use as nutritious feed for their Holstein cows. From the biodigester to water recovery and recycling, sustainability is top-of-mind on the farm. The Crave Brothers Farm LLC and Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese LLC use 100% green power and are carbon-negative businesses. Their anaerobic biodigester produces more electricity than they need, enough to power the dairy farm, the farmstead cheese-making plant, and over 300 homes in their community.
Every pound of cheese made by George Crave, a licensed cheese maker, is made with milk from the family’s herd. Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese produces Fresh Mozzarella, Mascarpone, Part-skim Mozzarella, Oaxaca, Farmer’s Rope String Cheese, and Fresh Cheddar Cheese Curds in white, yellow and jalapeño varieties.
Source: Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese