Kaasboerderij De Brienenshof

De Brienenshof is a dairy farm in Cothen, one of the oldest houses in the village, where a family has made cheese from the milk of its own Holstein cows since 1988.

In the cheese room they make Gouda boerenkaas (raw-milk farm cheese), young to old, plain and in about ten herb versions, and from the same milk they make yoghurt, buttermilk, butter, full-fat quark and whole milk. The farm also sells frozen beef from its own cows, a cross of Belgian Blue and Holstein Friesian. Their website says the cows go out to pasture as early in the year as the weather allows. The shop stocks goat's cheese, other cheeses, eggs and fruit products as well; their website doesn't say which of these come from the farm, and it also carries products from other producers in the region.

The farm shop is open Tuesday to Saturday, all day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and mornings only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. From Tuesday to Saturday in the morning you can watch the cheese being made from the shop, and the cheese is also sold through other farm shops nearby.

During opening hours visitors may look into the barn, where the milking cows stand on one side and the young stock on the other.