Dutch cheese markets Totally Explained

Everything about Dutch Cheese Markets totally explained

There are five cheese markets operating in the Netherlands. Woerden is a fully functional modern commercial cheese market. Four, Alkmaar, Gouda, Edam, Hoorn, are reproductions of traditional merchant cheese markets as operated in the Middle Ages. These shows are today surrounded by stalls selling all things traditional to the Dutch culture, including cheese. In the summer of 2007 a new cheese market will open in the historic town of Hoorn, on the Roode Steen square.

Alkmaar

This cheese market is open every Friday morning between 10 and 12 from the first Friday in April until the first Friday in September. Market activities are explained in Dutch, German, English and sometimes Japanese. There are four teams (vemen) of cheese-porters (kaasdragers), who can be recognised by their differently coloured straw hats: red, blue, green and yellow. Two porters bring cheese on stretchers to the weighing house (Waag) - a typical stretcher "weighs in" at about 160 kilograms. Merchants sample the cheeses and decide on a price using a barter system called handjeklap, literally clapping hands.

Edam

Edam is possibly the most popular of the markets described here, and as the name suggests, this market sells primarily Edam cheese. The cheeses are still brought to the market by horse-drawn carriages and boat. The market opens in July and August on Wednesday mornings from 10:30 until 12:30.

Hoorn

Since 2007, the cheese market has taken place every Thursday morning between 12:30 and 13:45 (1:45) and, between 28 June and 20 September, every Thursday evening between 21:00 and 22:15. Two porters bring cheese on stretchers to the weighing house (Waag). There are live commentaries of the whole process in both Dutch and English.

Gouda

Cheese has been traded on the Goudse kaasmarkt for more than three centuries from mid-June until August. Every Thursday morning between 10 and 12:30, farmers from the region gather to have their cheese weighed, tasted and priced. The Gouda cheese market is surrounded by many exhibitions of authentic Dutch professions, from cheese production to clog making and buttermilk preparation.

Woerden

The only production cheese market in existence in the Netherlands has little of the spectacle or pageantry of the three other cheese markets. For more than 100 years, every Wednesday morning starting around 9, there's an active trade between the kaasboeren (cheese farmers) and the marktmeester (market foreman), when prices are determined for the different types of cheese. The cheeses for sale are boerenkazen (farmers' cheeses) which are considered by cheese aficionados to be more authentic and have a much better taste than factory-made cheese.

Historic Cheese Market Woerden

Annually, in August, on the last Wednesday of the school summer holidays (for the central Netherlands), a historic cheese market is held, where the farmers and farmer's wives dress up in historical costumes, and re-enact traditional a traditional cheese market.

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