Dutch Cheese Markets
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There are four cheese markets still operating in the Netherlands. These are to be found in the places Alkmaar, Gouda, Edam and Woerden, although only the latter is a true cheese market. The first three are really only demonstrations of how traditional merchant cheese markets used to be run in the middle ages. These shows are today surrounded by stalls selling all things traditional to the Dutch culture, including cheese of course.
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Alkmaar
The cheese market is held every Friday morning between 10 and 12 from the first Friday in April until the first Friday in September. The goings-on are explained in Dutch, German, English and sometimes Japanese. There are fours teams (vemen) of cheese-porters (kaasdragers), who can be recognised by their differently coloured straw hat: red, blue, green and yellow. They bring the cheese on stretchers to the weighing house (Waag) for weighing. A typical stretcher weighs in around 160 kilograms and is carried by two porters. Merchants takes sample of the cheeses and decide on a price using a barter system called handjeklap, literally clapping hands.
Edam
Probably the most popular cheese market, and Edam cheese certainly seems to be the most popular Dutch cheese available outside of mainland Europe. If you do not mind the fact that you will be in a town with a population which has only three surnames, and which is notorious for people operating outside of the tax system, then this is the place to be! The cheeses are still brought to the market by horse-drawn carriages and boat. The cheese market takes place in July and August on Wednesday mornings from 10:30 until 12:30. Best not to go with any close relations, you might end up marrying them, or worse still accidentally selling them on the black market in a seemingly friendly round of handjeklap!
Gouda
From the middle of June until August, cheese has been traded on the Goudse kaasmarkt for more than three centuries. Every Thursday morning between 10 and 12:30, farmers from the region gather to have these cheese weighed, tasted and priced. The Gouda cheese market is probably the nicest location of all the Dutch Cheese markets. The market is surrounded by many exhibitions of authentic Dutch professions, from (as would be expected) cheese production to clog making and buttermilk preparation.
Woerden
The only real cheese market in existence in the Netherlands has little of the spectacle and pageantry of the three other cheese markets. For more than 100 years, every Wednesday morning starting around 9, there is 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 most to be more authetic, and have a much better taste than those that can generally be bought.
Historic Cheese Market Woerden
Once a year, in August, on the last Wednesday of the school summer holidays (for the central Netherlands), a historic cheese market is held. The farmers and farmer's wives dress up in historical costumes.nl:Kaasmarkt