Hey everyone, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you have a great start to the new weekend! Today I would like to deepen an experience that I made in the Netherlands and am happy if others like the contribution.
When I visited the old village of Volendam in the Netherlands, I was able to have some interesting experiences and one of them was certainly the visit to a traditional old cheese factory which is one of the most famous sights of the village. The entire region is known for producing cheese for over 600 years, which is why this place is more than just a simple production site but a place full of history and culture where cheese has been produced for centuries which is exported all over the world. Some regional cheese was so produced that it have a particularly long shelf life, which is why it could be sent to other countries without any problems and the cheese factory in Volendam itself is newer and was created during this century with the aim of teaching visitors more about these crafts and the special thing is that free guided tours are offered here or visitors can even taste the cheese themselves. Of course, local cheese can also be bought and as I understood, the operators also work together a lot with different farmers from the region to ensure good quality as well as regional diversity and also it is more than just to sell but to preserve an important heritage of the country.
The promotion of culture seems to be very important here and thanks to the good location numerous people visit this place every day and for people who want to go even deeper into the matter, it is important to know that the well-known Edam cheese comes from the same region, which is known worldwide. The utensils that can be found here are original tools that still come from old times and the whole process of production is systematically discussed, which also includes explaining the variety or demonstrating why certain varieties have their own taste. Pretty much all important facets of the production are illuminated here and some steps are necessary, some of which are extremely complex and as a basis the milk must first be processed and here certain temperatures are used to destroy dangerous bacteria at the beginning and to increase the shelf life.
In the next steps it is about adding certain bacteria and forming a mass which must then be separated from the liquid and compressed in the later steps with certain shapes. It is also very important to improve the taste for which salt water is specially used and this has the consequence that after a few days the taste is significantly improved, but the cheese is far from finished and now it is time for maturation which can take a long time depending on the variety of cheese. Only by ripening the cheese becomes what most people know and it comes to the emergence of a whole own taste and through a layer of wax it comes to the fact that the shelf time will increase and now the cheese is ready for sale and I hope from this short description, you can see what an enormous effort is behind the production. If you should be in the area, you absolutely have to look at this important place which is closely linked to the culture and in addition, the entrance is free as well as the atmosphere authentic and even the employees wear traditional clothes here to boost the mood.
Many thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new and like my post and appreciate my effort! I captured these pictures with my Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm.