What do you think of when you hear the word "Dutch"? Wet weather, tall people, bikes, Amsterdam, cheese?
The Netherlands has a lot to offer and the heritage of the nation is just as rich as the next.
Some popular cheeses in the world come from the Netherlands. I visited the Zaanse Schaan where a compliation of multiple staples of the Dutch heritage stand.
The Henry Willig cheese family is, well, a cheese family. They've been in the business for a good few decades. Since 1974 to be exact. In this shop you can take a trip through the history of cheese making and the rise of the Henry Willig cheese family in the business.
The building is a typical long house, with long head and neck. It is, if I'm not mistaken a typical frisian farmhouse.
The outside has a huge grazing area with many many goats chilling there. If you've ever been around goats the you know what the air smells around there. Nevertheless, it makes for a very cute pet zoo.
The Henry Willig cheese house hosts tours as well as guided tours can be booked for big groups. The employees wear traditional farmers costumes throughout the facility.
Once inside you can go through a time capsule and learn how cheese was made here in the older times. A very informative and illustrative display of how much milk creates how much cheese from either cow, goat, or sheep is shown with faux fur of those animals.
Written on the buckets: COW. 10 LITRES = 1 KILO CHEESE, GOAT. 7 LITRES = 1 KILO CHEESE, and SHEEP. 6 LITRES = 1 KILO CHEESE.
So, the sheep milk yields the highest amount of cheese with the lowest amount of milk. However, cows produce the most milk even if the total cheese yield is lower.
There is also a display of "Henry and his animals". The display is made in the typical fashion from Henry's times. It is not clear if he had only one sheep, goat, and cow. However, it is shown what he wore and how the animals were kept. Now, the animals are not kept here but nearby, and much more openly.
An electronic beam displays videos oflver what I can addume to be a well or a large bucket. In the videos they show the recent ways of cheese production and the large facilities. Besides the display are the tools of the business used during older times.
As we go deeper into the farmhouse, the more we learn about the family. There are racks of cheese wheels laying against the tall walls. This is how cheese was stored before. This display is part of the "HOW HENRY WILLIG MAKES HIS CHEESE"
On the opposite wall you can see the posters used for advertising cheese. Not exclusively for Henry, but cheese in general. There are also black and white pictures of the barn and production line from many years back.
The timeline of the Henry Willig cheese family business is very clearly put up to appreciate their journey. The wall is called "HALF A CENTURY OF EXPERIENCE ". In my year of birth they had put up their first Amsterdam store, pretty cool. Goat cheese was introduced only from the year 1980 and a fire in the year 1985. In the year 2006 they were awarded the best hard goat cheese. So the wall consists of both sweet and sour memories that complete this journey in its totality.
In the shop!
After a quick tour of the history, it is now time to enjoy the fruits of their labour. The shop has everything HENRY WILLIG! All the assortments of all sorts of cheese and everything cheese. From cheese bites to wheels to boards and knives.
There is a smaller, closed section inside where only guided tours have access to. In there they have a small demonstration of how cheese is made today and also a guided cheese tasting.
I got to try to types of cheese: Sublime sheep, a sheep cheese with a very light signature taste to it. Sheep cheese has its own signature taste, as does giat cheese, but much lighter. In the sublime sheep cheese the signature taste is rather muted. It has a succulent texture that should go well with a baguette on a autumn day.
The other was Tremendous Truffle. Need I say more? This is a cow's milk cheese with a very strong undertone of truffles. Undertones are not strong, but you know what I mean.
These cheeses were selected by Martin Willig, son to Henry Willig.
Zaanse Schaan has so much more to offer than this cheese trip, not limited to windmills, shoe workshop, a castle, watchmakers, and more. It is a truly beautiful walk through the heritage of the Dutch!
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