{"id":1439,"date":"2011-04-25T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T14:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2011-04-25T09:04:08","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T14:04:08","slug":"say-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=1439","title":{"rendered":"Say Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holland knows cheese. \u00a0They have many cheese makers, thanks to the thousands of milk-producing cows that live there. \u00a0We always try to stop in for a visit at a family-run cheese business during our annual visits.<\/h3>\n

Last week while cycling through the town of Gouda (the Dutch pronounce it “How da”), we had the opportunity to get a personal up-close visit of how they make that particular recipe. \u00a0Although most cheeses start with cows milk, they each have their own special formula and aging process that make them what they are.<\/h3>\n

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The farm we visited makes cheese twice daily five days a week. \u00a0That is all thanks to their very productive worker cows who produce so much milk. \u00a0The big heated vat in this photo is where the milk goes immediately after \u00a0the milking process. \u00a0It is heated to a certain temperature and is stirred with huge automatic whisks. \u00a0Once the milk becomes solid, it is removed. \u00a0The remaining liquid, known a whey, is fed to their 900 plus pigs.<\/h3>\n

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When it solidifies, the cheese is pressed into different sized molds and soaked in a brine.<\/h3>\n

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Then it is transported to a cool room where it is painted with three coats of liquid plastic to preserve it. \u00a0Then it is aged, anywhere from weeks to months. \u00a0This determines the mildness of the flavor.<\/h3>\n

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Each farm has its own logo, which you can see stamped here. \u00a0There is also an identification number for each batch of cheese. \u00a0This makes it easy to trace the product if there is a problem.<\/h3>\n

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The milk used by this farm is not pasturized before it is used in the cheese. \u00a0That is what the words raume melk<\/em> mean.<\/h3>\n

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The tiny specs you see in some of the cheese are herbs that have been added to make a certain type of gouda cheese. \u00a0They also added peppers to some for a spicy cheese.<\/h3>\n

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The big slabs of cheese are purchased by stores rather than by individuals.<\/h3>\n

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In addition to cheeses, fresh farm eggs were also available in their shop.<\/h3>\n

After leaving this cheese farm, which was run solely by a husband and wife and their son and daughter-in-law, I was truly thankful that I did not marry a cheese farmer. \u00a0They have a very difficult and never-ending job. \u00a0I won’t complain again about the price of cheese. \u00a0Despite their long hours, they still have a sense of humor as evident in the photo below.<\/h3>\n

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Holland knows cheese. \u00a0They have many cheese makers, thanks to the thousands of milk-producing cows that live there. \u00a0We always try to stop in for a visit at a family-run cheese business during our annual visits. Last week while cycling through the town of Gouda (the Dutch pronounce it “How da”), we had the opportunity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}