I always love a road trip, especially when it involves food.  I’m in Fredonia, Pennsylvania in Mercer County.  It’s about one hour from Erie. There’s a factory in Fredonia that not only makes the most Swiss cheese in Pennsylvania, it also makes the best.   

I'm being taken on a tour of the Fairview Swiss Cheese plant.  99% of the cheese made here is Swiss cheese.  Owner Rick Koller begins the tour by telling me that ten pounds of milk is used to make one pound of cheese.  And this plant makes over seven million pounds of Swiss cheese per year.

"Remember that milk is 88% water to start with,” says Rick. “It's the other 12% that we're working with.  The butter fat, the protein, the calcium, and minerals are bound together to form the cheese."  

Everything begins with five large vats. Each are filled with 5,000 gallons of milk. Cultures are added to begin a process that coagulates the milk. Curds and whey are separated from the mixture.  The curds are poured into individual containers where 200-pound blocks of Swiss cheese will be formed.  The curd blocks are fermented and then removed from the containers and placed in a salt brine bath.  A 5-week aging process follows. The cheese is finally checked for texture, smoothness, and for those famous Swiss cheese holes, also called eyes. 

It's those eyes that make Swiss cheese so special.  Nice and round, and smooth and shiny on the inside.  Fairview Swiss Cheese is sold to distributors all over the country under different names. But, if you want to make sure you purchase Fairview Swiss Cheese, you can always visit the factory store. 

"We've just been here so long.  People, families, tradition. One after the other.  People that have moved out of the area stop back in when they're here.  They buy cheese and take it back to Florida for the winter or take it to Arizona for the winter,” says Rick.    

The aging process is interesting.  The holes are fascinating.  But most importantly, this cheese is delicious.

“The best.  Absolutely,” says Rick.  “There's no doubt about that.  We've got the best tasting Swiss cheese out there."

Rick's sons also work at the plant.  They are the fifth generation of cheese makers in the Koller family.  The factory and the store are located on Route 19 in Fredonia, PA.   The milk used to make the cheese is local, purchased from farms throughout Western Pennsylvania.