The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowKaasboerderij Doruvael
- Cattle, sheep or goats graze on pasture in the grazing season
Kaasboerderij Doruvael is a dairy and cheese farm in Blokland near Montfoort, in the Groene Hart, with 100 dairy cows and about forty young stock, where the milk is made into cheese on the farm and sold in its own shop.
The farm's own cheeses are what their website calls boerenkaas and Le Petit Doruvael, a washed-rind (red-bacteria) cow's-milk cheese developed on the farm after many trials in the cheese vat; whether the milk for it is raw or pasteurised isn't stated. Their website says the cows give the best milk when they are content in the meadow and on the farm, and the shop also sells beef from their own cattle. The farm uses as little artificial fertiliser as it can, belongs to an agricultural nature association, protects meadow birds, keeps flowering ditch banks and plants copses on the field corners. The shop adds sheep's cheese, cow's and goat's buttermilk, yoghurt and quark, mostly from other farms in the region.
The farm shop opens on Friday and Saturday from 9:00 to 16:00. Tours for groups of ten or more show the robot milking, the meadow-bird work and the cheesemaking, and can be booked through the shop.
The farm is also a care farm, with six to eight people a day doing farm work under supervision.