Meet Your Makers: Nancy Potter of Potter's Crackers

2006 was a great year for cheese, and cheese-lovers alike. That year Peter Potter Weber and his mom Nancy Potter founded Potter’s Crackers in Madison, WI. With combined extensive experience in baking and food science they set out to provide the people of Wisconsin and beyond with crackers worthy of the amazing artisan-grade cheeses that were being turned out by some of the best creameries and dairy farms the Cheese State has to offer. Provenance Food & Wine staffer Nathan was able to talk with Nancy Potter herself about what matters most: cheese, butter, baked goods, family, and more…

1 I’ll be the first to admit it; more often than not when I pick up a bag of Potter’s Crackers with intention to pair them with one of the great artisan cheeses we carry at Provenance Food & Wine, I end up eating the whole bag before Cheese meets Cracker. You’ve managed to create a product that literally cannot be consumed quickly enough. Aside from making a ridiculously tasty snack, what else do you hope to accomplish through Potter’s Crackers?

NP: I had a friend whose father was the most dedicated dairy farmer you could ever meet. He loved his cows and the land with his whole being. He died a number of years ago from “farmers’ lung”, the result of years of unknowingly spreading dangerous chemicals on his fields. I knew that someday I wanted to make a contribution to the organic world in his honor. I know that is a little heavy for a blog post but it’s the truth!

2 On your website I see that prior to founding Potter’s Crackers back in 2006, Nancy was running New Glarus Bakery for almost 25 years and Peter had been studying food science at the University of Wisconsin. Was a family background in baking and a desire to study the science of all things food that led you to founding Potter’s Crackers? Or was there some other form of inspiration that got you into the business of handcrafted artisan baked crackers?

NP: Growing up in a family-owned business, it was clear early on that Pete had an entrepreneurial spirit. I remember well his first lemonade stand. He was selling it for .10 a glass and sales were not going well, by noon he had only made a dollar. He came back later in the day and had made $14! Given the math I couldn’t figure out how this could be but I never should have doubted Pete. He moved the stand to outside the door of a local museum and started opening the door for everyone going in and out. Said he converted almost 100% of these visitors to customers and they usually added a tip!

For me, baking has always felt like magic, you take those elemental ingredients in the door and out goes a finished product in a completely different form. It still feels like magic to me-that’s why I still make crackers. We started making crackers because the cheese here in Wisconsin from our artisan cheesemakers keeps getting better and better and it deserved a better cracker.

3 As a family based in the great cheese state of Wisconsin how important was it to you to create a cracker that could garner as much attention and respect as the cheeses that come out of your home states creameries and dairy farms?

NP; I should read ahead, I keep answering the questions ahead! Yes, we needed a better cracker in the great state of Wisconsin. The interesting thing is our positioning; a cracker is sort of the bridesmaid and never the bride. You want a cracker that tastes great on its own but compliments, not overpowers the cheese it is paired with, always a balancing act.

4 Being a Certified Organic business by MOSA, the Midwest Organic Services Association, you’re obviously paying close attention to using the most sustainable and best possible local ingredients to use in your baked goods. How would you say Potter’s Crackers takes advantage of being located in such an agriculturally-rich region of the country?

NP: Well, we make our crackers with butter and you can taste it! Crackers are of course a low-fat food by nature. We started with total whole grain base and then added just enough butter to get the texture we wanted. Tiny amounts of top quality really influence the final product. Its not just the Wisconsin organic butter that makes the difference, I think the quality whole grain adds a natural sweetness that adds up to deliciousness!

5 Here at Provenance Food & Wine we love a good pairing. Naturally your crackers are a go-to recommendation we make to our customers when they’re looking for something to have with any number of our cheeses (especially our broad collection of Wisconsin varieties). When developing each of your crackers are you thinking of specific cheeses in mind to pair them with?

NP: Well, it is sort of a chicken and egg situation. Sometimes we taste a cheese and it just screams pairing with a certain cracker (like Blue with Rye or Pleasant Ridge with Rosemary) and sometimes we taste a cheese and it inspires work on a new flavor. All of our employees offer up new flavor ideas regularly; we usually spend those quieter months after the holidays to do flavor testing.

6 Anyone that’s been to Wisconsin knows how beautifully scenic it can be. Working and living in such an inspirational area must help the creative process when looking to develop flavor profiles for your products. What is it about the region that inspires your team to turn out such delicious goods?

NP: You know we are lucky enough to live in a beautiful spot but I have to say, most of our inspiration comes from two sources, cheese and cheeseheads aka people! I do the famous Dane County Farmers’ Market. I always groan about pulling myself out of bed at 4:30 am on every beautiful summer Saturday morning but once I get there, I love it! It’s the meeting with the customers, hearing their cracker ideas and anecdotes that inspires me. I come in Monday morning with their ideas to share, it’s the customers that inspire us the most.


7 The number and variety of cheeses being made in Wisconsin every day is probably mind-boggling (people have lost count I’m sure). At Potter’s Crackers do you ever feel compelled to turn out new or different products to keep up with such a lively dairy industry or does slow and steady win the race? With that in mind are you developing anything new at the moment now that we’re coming into such a bountiful time of year?

NP: In any business you want to be sure to be able to deliver on your promises so we are conservative on what promises we make that’s for sure. But, one thing we are working on is a line of Crisps here in Wisconsin. Pete has been doing them in California since early spring and its been going great! They are a heartier cheese vehicle that folks have been loving. We are busy perfecting the Wisconsin version and sourcing our local ingredients. Look for Potter’s Crisps Wisconsin this summer!

8 One of the favorite parts of my job at Provenance is just being scheduled on a day that we’re sampling out a cheese, because that usually means bowl of Potter’s on the side to pair with it (snack time!). Is sampling your crackers along the way while working in the bakery your favorite part of the job?

NP: Okay, confession time, I eat five crackers a day, everyday! Contrary to the popular believe that constant exposure leads to palate monotony, I love the crackers and could make a meal of them every day. I have found giving myself a limit with the knowledge I can have them everyday keeps me happy!

9 So I’ve mentioned earlier how my favorite cracker of yours, hands down, has got to be the Caramelized Onion. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the countless hours spent chopping away at a mountain of onion for the benefit of people like me and our customers. With that in mind, would you say tearing up over the onions if your least favorite part of the job? 

NP: So, we have tried EVERYTHING to help make chopping onions less painful; fans, under cold water, in a walk-in fridge, eye goggles, face masks, you name it, nothing works. We chop 2, 40 pound bags at a time and caramelize them all. Lets just say, Caramelized Onion Crackers are a true labor of love. We welcome any suggestions in the onion chopping department and are willing to try them all!

10 Finally, could you share with our readers one of your favorite stories or anecdotes that’s occurred along the way at Potter’s that has stood out over the years since you started the business?

NP: Hands down, it was our first sale! Pete and I had done lots of trial batches and worked on packaging and we had our first bags ready, we were nervous and excited. An Eastside Farmer’s Market about four blocks from the cracker kitchen had just started up and they let us in as a vendor before anyone had every seen a Potter’s Cracker! Pete took our only vehicle to opening day with what we thought he might sell and sample. He called me after the first hour and said, “Bring all the crackers we have, right away!” I ran the four blocks carrying as many crackers as I could! There is no other way to describe it, its like your baby taking her first steps, we were beside ourselves we were so excited!

That beginning gives you some idea of the support that our community has given us from the very beginning. We wouldn’t be anywhere without the great people of Madison WI and folks like you committed to your business and selling great cheese and telling the world about Potter’s. I can only say thank you.