Dutch Cheese Gifts and Gouda Gift Baskets by Henri Willig

Cheese-heads If there is one real cheese country in the world, it's The Netherlands. In fact, abroad the Dutch are known as 'cheese-heads' (who'd rather sell their cheese than eat it themselves). In Dutch 'cheese-head' is also another word for the mould in which the cheese is made. It is rumoured that in the Middle Ages farmers in North Holland used these wooden moulds as helmets. This is how the enemy could identify an army of 'cheese-heads' approaching.
	Cattle under sea-level The Dutch soil has always been pre-eminently suitable for cattle-breeding. For over 2000 years, the Dutch have been working to create more farmland by reclaiming land from the North Sea. They used windmills to pump water out, and then block water from coming back onto the dry land by a wall called a dike. The dry land that is created by pumping out the water is called a polder. Today, almost half the country is actually below sea level!
The great discovery In prehistoric times someone must have discovered that when milk turns sour the white curds taste good and moreover, that it keeps well. Discoveries indicate that as early as two centuries B.C., cheese was being made in Holland. An extensive trade has existed since the Middle Ages. Around 1100 Dutch bargemen paid their tolls in cheese at Koblenz in Germany and cities like Gouda, Edam and Alkmaar obtained the right to hold a dairy market.
A still life with fruit, bread and cheese was known in the seventeenth century as a breakfast piece, an 'ontbijtgen'. Ten such paintings are known by Floris van Dijck	The world's largest exporter of cheese For centuries cheese making was a craft usually undertaken by women. Nowadays over 98% of all Dutch cheese is produced in modern creameries. Holland produces over 630 million kilos of cheese, of which 500 million kilos is exported. As the world's largest exporter of cheese, the abusive name of 'cheese-heads' could be considered as an honorary nickname.

We accept:

Secured pages by: