Howard Renard started learning to make cheese at thirteen. He rode along with his father, who hauled milk for Fontaine's Cheese Factory in Door County, and apprenticed at the plants along the route. After about twenty years of working at other people's cheese factories, in 1961 Howard and his wife Angela bought their own, a small plant in Algoma called Rosewood Dairy. They had seven children. The plant doubled as the family's living quarters.
The original Rosewood Dairy operated out of two ten-thousand-pound vats, running about 16,000 pounds of milk per day. Howard's son Gary joined the business and, two weeks before his high school graduation in 1966, bought the Cloverleaf Cheese Factory south of Sturgeon Bay. In 1975, Gary and his wife Bonnie remodeled Cloverleaf into a retail cheese store, an idea Howard initially called "the craziest thing he had ever heard." The store worked. The Renard family is still running it.
The third generation.
Chris Renard, Gary's son, was raised in the operation. He has said his playpen was an empty milk vat. He worked through college (UW-Green Bay, business and marketing) and spent a few years as a buyer for SuperValu. In 1995, his father asked him to come home. Chris got his cheesemaker's license and started making cheese at Rosewood. He introduced string cheese to the Renard's line, a product the family had never made before. It became one of their bestsellers.
In 2010, Chris and his wife Ann took over ownership. In 2014, Chris earned his Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker certification. He is, as of 2026, the only Master Cheesemaker in Door County and one of fewer than 100 statewide. The fourth generation, Chris and Ann's daughter Samantha, is now involved in operations.
The milk.
Door County's geology matters here. The peninsula sits on a limestone aquifer that filters the groundwater the cows drink. The pastures grow on rich limestone-derived soil. Chris Renard talks about milk the way wine people talk about terroir. "It does not matter how good of a cheesemaker you are, if the milk you start with is not any good, you are going to make average cheese." The milk is sourced from local Door County family farms, all non-GMO and rBST/rBGH-free. Renard's processes approximately 30 million pounds of it annually.
It does not matter how good of a cheesemaker you are. If the milk you start with is not any good, you are going to make average cheese.
What they make.
Renard's catalog runs to 75-plus varieties. The foundation is the family-tradition cheeses: Cheddar, Colby, Farmers, Muenster, Brick, Marble Jack, Monterey Jack. Then string cheese (Chris's introduction), smoked string cheese, and over 50 flavor-infused specialty cheeses. They make traditional cheese curds, fresh and squeaky, sold at both retail locations and shipped through their online store.
Why this recognition.
Renard's qualifies for Recognized tier as listed, with a credible case for Heritage promotion based on the three-generation continuity and Chris Renard's Master Cheesemaker status. That decision will be revisited in the 2027 review. They meet all six pillars of the Real Wisconsin Cheese Curd Standard.
