The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowDe Wit Houtdijk
- Cattle, sheep or goats graze on pasture in the grazing season
De Wit Houtdijk is the business behind cheese farm De Houdycker in Kamerik, where the farmers keep about 100 red-and-white cows and make Blauw Klaver, a soft blue cheese, from their milk alone.
The herd is a cross of MRIJ and Red Holstein, and their motto is that cows belong in the meadow, for which they have 40 hectares of polder grassland. Blauw Klaver is made only from the farm's own milk, which is pasteurised first, so it isn't a raw-milk cheese; rennet, starter and blue mould are then added, the curd is cut and stirred by hand and put into moulds, and the cheeses ripen in a cold store built to imitate the cool French caves where this kind of cheese traditionally matures. The recipe was chosen after they studied French soft-cheese making, since the Netherlands has no tradition of blue cheese.
Their website doesn't give shop hours or other ways to buy, so it is best to contact the farm before visiting.
Their website says the free, spacious grazing comes through in the taste of the cheese.