Christmas movie stars Wisconsin cheese

STURGEON BAY, Wis. — In an attempt to save her family’s cherry orchard, Emma Parker enters a pie-baking contest in which the secret ingredient is a special cheese baked into the crust.

It was Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin that suggested cheese be a key ingredient in the recipe found in the Christmas-themed movie, “A Cherry Pie Christmas,” that debuted this fall. Produced in partnership with DFW, the movie was filmed entirely in Door County.

The organization worked with the Department of Tourism and Travel Wisconsin on this holiday project and had input into the film and the script itself.

“It felt like a great opportunity for us to showcase Wisconsin’s dairy heritage to a wider audience,” said Rachel Kerr, vice president of experiential and brand marketing at DFW. “We wanted to show how Wisconsin cheese is truly remarkable and how something like a great cheese can make something award winning. This suggestion becomes a central part of the entire film.”

Starring Katie Leclerc and Ryan Carnes, the movie premiered Oct. 11 on the Great American Family network under the name “A Wisconsin Christmas Pie.” Starting Nov. 15, “A Cherry Pie Christmas” has been available to stream on demand across multiple platforms and is also a featured title on Amazon’s Always Christmas channel.

“Whether it’s the main character trying to help save her family’s orchard or key moments where cheese and dairy are featured, the movie is a nod to our care and love of great cheese, great dairy and great food overall,” Kerr said. “It showcases Wisconsin as an agricultural state and specifically highlights our dairy farmers. It was a great way to show Wisconsin’s true passion for dairy, which is woven into different elements of this film.”

The movie’s winning pie recipe features Renard’s Cherry Cheddar made by Renard’s Cheese with Door County cherries. Located in Sturgeon Bay, Renard’s Cheese is a fourth-generation family-owned business that has been making small batch, handcrafted artisan cheeses since 1961.

“We are well known for our cheddars, specifically our banded-style and flavored cheddars,” Ann Renard said. “Cherry cheddar was one of our very first flavors we ever launched as a company in our sweet line.”

Renard said the Renard’s Cherry Cheddar is a young, mild, white cheddar made with Door County cherries. The cheese’s cherry flavor is also combined with a vanilla flavor.

“There are no vanilla adders in the cheese; rather, it’s how the cherries and starter culture react together,” Renard said. “It’s a really unique flavor and very unique to our region. It’s a great snacking cheese and is great on charcuterie boards because it’s a very beautiful cheese.”

Cooking with this cheese is not something people just do in the movies. The cheese can be shredded and used in pancakes, scones, muffins, sourdough bread and cherry pie crusts.

“If you bake that pie with cherry cheddar in it, it is outstanding,” Renard said. “It really makes a huge difference to a standard cherry pie.”

DFW met with the movie’s producers in the early stages and shared facts about Wisconsin and the importance of dairy in the state while offering suggestions on how they could incorporate this idea into the story line.

“A couple fun things were included because of our partnership,” Kerr said. “One is a quiet nod to Cheeselandia throughout the film. We also wanted to make sure that a wide array of Wisconsin cheeses were featured in the movie.”

As a result, cheese can be found either in the forefront or in the background in several scenes. For example, Kerr said there is an epic Wisconsin cheese display at a chamber event party. Scenes that take place at a coffee and cheese shop also put cheese front and center.

“Our farms work hard to give us high-quality milk to create a great product, and as a cheese manufacturer, it’s our job to drive the sales of that product,” Renard said. “That’s done by creating awareness. Wisconsin is the dairy state, and we always want to see dairy succeed here.”

DFW helped turn Door County Coffee Café into a cheese shop that replicated Renard’s Artisan Cheese.

“We brought Wisconsin cheese donated from Renard’s and other producers and filled the case and helped the set designers make it look like an authentic Wisconsin cheese shop,” Kerr said.

In one scene at the shop, the main character is talking to her friend who is being portrayed as an employee of Renard’s as they share a Wisconsin cheese board and talk about New World Cheddar Cheese and Renard’s Cherry Cheddar.

“We were ecstatic to see that as we did not know that would be the case,” Renard said.  “They actually show the packaged product when she’s making the pie. There are a lot of great callouts for us and other businesses in Door County.”

DFW members were onsite whenever cheese was featured in the film to ensure it was authentically represented. One staff member even made a cameo in the movie as the barista and server who brings the main character and her friend the cheese board while they have coffee.

“It was really important to us that Wisconsin cheese be highlighted in the way we know Wisconsin cheese to be,” Kerr said. “That helps paint the picture of the passion Wisconsinites take in their dairy heritage while always giving a nod to the Wisconsin farmers who help make that happen. It’s great to see Renard’s represented in the film. We also made sure other varieties of cheese from Wisconsin were represented.”

Renard and her husband, Chris, and their youngest daughter, Karie, as well as other Renard’s Cheese team members, were extras in the movie.

“It was a great experience,” Renard said. “Wisconsin is a hidden gem for cheese manufacturing. We have the most awarded cheese in the world, and we produce the most artisan cheese in the world. A lot of people don’t know that, and this was another avenue to get that message out.”

Renard said her company’s involvement in the film has been good for business.

“We can’t keep the cherry cheddar on the shelf,” she said. “We also created a cherry pie Christmas gift box for the holiday season, which includes our cherry cheddar, and that’s been popular too.”

Renard’s Cherry Cheddar now wears a label that reads: “As featured in ‘A Cherry Pie Christmas.’”

“Hopefully that helps connect people to the movie, and they’ll be curious and look for it,” Renard said.

Being part of a movie where cheese was the leading star felt like a natural fit for DFW as well.

“We were happy to be part of this film and give Wisconsin a little extra attention and let people from a national standpoint experience our passion and culture,” Kerr said. “The movie is filled with Wisconsin holiday magic, and it was fun to see it all come together.”