Spring Green gets ready to fill ears and tummy

Last Updated: May 16, 2000

Dennis McCann

Spring Green -- On a summer-like afternoon in spring I took a late lunch - a highwayman's haute cuisine of ham and Swiss and a root beer - on the shaded porch of the Cafe and General Store, where only a rocking chair could have improved my lot in life.

That and better timing. Lunch was late but like the unseasonable weather I had arrived before Spring Green's musical summer got rolling. Too early for religious music, too early for rural tunes. Too early for Bach, or even for Bob.

Dylan, of course, because the schedule is eclectic enough for any taste, running from Bob Fest on May 28 at the General Store to hymn sings on Saturdays throughout the season and much more.

As I considered the schedule I made a mental note. Highway 14 will need revisiting.

In my mind I associate Spring Green with autumn the way I associate baseball with boring, Christmas with credit cards. In September and October, when roadside stands in southwestern Wisconsin are ripe to bursting with the bounty of a good growing season, the vegetable gardens of Spring Green serve as the gateway to the orchards of Gays Mills. At such times it is one of the busiest aisles in nature's grocery store.

Of course, Spring Green is about more than apples and squash. It has long been a magnet for the fans of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was so controversial a figure when he arrived here with another man's wife that some wanted him arrested, but who was beloved by the time he died. The Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center offers tours of the architect's former studio, residence and other Wright-related sites.

The terrific Springs Golf Club boasts 27 holes, 18 designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and the other nine by Madison's Andy North and his partner, Roger Packard. American Players Theatre makes fine comedy and drama in the hills of Wyoming Valley, and Spring Green is home of House on the Rock, an attraction I have thus far successfully avoided but which I am assured is, well, something.

But in summer the hills fill with music. A few years ago, I caught one of the concerts of the Rural Musicians Forum at historic Unity Chapel, which once served the worship needs of the prominent Lloyd Jones family, Wright's descendants. These concerts, benefiting from the presence of gifted musicians who make homes in the area, include chamber music, jazz, folk and other styles.

This year's concerts will be performed on six Monday evenings - June 12 and 26, July 10 and 24 and Aug. 7 and 14 - at 7:30 p.m. On Sundays in July, excluding July 2, Unity Chapel will host non-denominational services that also feature music and dance by local artists. Unity Chapel is three miles south of Spring Green on County T. Donations are welcome at Monday concerts, but a few bucks in a bucket is a small price to pay for an evening of fine homemade music.

Four miles south of Unity Chapel is the similarly historic Wyoming Valley Methodist Church, where public hymn sings are held on the first Saturday of each month from June through October. The events are non-denominational and donations are again welcome.

Still not entertained? The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society will perform July 23 and 30 and Aug. 6 and 7 at Taliesin's Hillside Theater, and the River Valley Players, a community theater group, mount several productions annually at the historic Gard Theater in downtown Spring Green.

If all of that leaves you hungry you might stop, as I did when I finally left the porch, at the family-owned Cedar Grove cheese factory a few miles away in the village of Plain. Cedar Grove is celebrating its 100th birthday in 2000, which owner Bob Wills says is an increasingly rare occasion in the dairy industry.

"There are a few (that old) but I don't think there are very many," he said.

Cedar Grove uses the milk from about 40 farms to produce some 11,000 pounds of cheese six days each week. About a third of that is certified organic, and all of its milk comes from farms that decline to use growth hormones to boost production.

The factory invites visitors to watch cheese being made every day, but will mark its birthday with a special event on June 10. The party will feature food, music and, Wills said, a certain sense of satisfaction.

"One hundred years seemed like an accomplishment to me," he said. "We've been working very hard out here and we just decided it might be time to slow down and have a party."

The public is welcome. Take Highway B from Plain east one-half mile and turn left on Mill Road to Cedar Grove Cheese.