It is kind of a strange day today. There is no cheese to be made anymore and no cows to milk! Yesterday was the big Alp Upwart (probably spelt that wrong) which is the traditional leading of the cows down the mountain back to their village farms. It was really an amazing event. The cows were dressed up with fancy bells and flowers and even me and Jan had to dress up. Then all the farmers, us, and the cows made the 5 km walk of so back to the village where we had to say goodbye. I was quite ready [View Full Entry]

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Getting near the end of my stay here in the Schweiz I thought it’d be interesting to say a few things about what I’ve learned about the people here. Guttannen is really quite a unique place, even for Switzerland. It is traditional and has resisted many of the modern forces in our world. The people are also very tied to traditions and work to keep them alive. Though everything isn’t problem free, as most other places they have their share of complications. Probably the most interesting part of the town is that it is still a community of people instead of [View Full Entry]

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So it’s been a little bit since I’ve added anything and quite an amount of cheese has been made in the meantime so I figured it was about time I wrote something more down. A lot has happened in the past week or so, especially since my parents were out here for a visit. That was definitely a great thing. I got some good company for a while plus in showing them around I got a chance to see some more of the area other than this small part that I’m always working on. A few farmers were kind enough to [View Full Entry]

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The Cheese Well about the cheese. Swiss are know around the world for their cheese but really the rest of the world does not know much about swiss cheese. We tend to lump it all in a category of the cheese with the big holes. This cheese, called Emmentaler is actually a small part of swiss cheese, and a lot better tasting here that at home. This is also a much younger cheese in swiss terms, the older true mountain cheeses are simply called Alpkase or Alp Cheese. These alp cheeses varz but they all have similar characteristics, something like gruyere. [View Full Entry]

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This is the long overdue premier posting of my Swiss Alp cheese making experience. I’ve been here over three weeks now and cannot even begin to describe what it is like. My plan is to post an entry every couple of weeks about something specific in my expereince. Things like the landscape, the cheese, the cows, and the people. To begin, though, I’ll give a general intro to where I’m at. The place is Handegg Switzerland which is close to the massive village of Guttannen boasting an incredible 351 people. This is situated within the Canton (swiss provinces) of Bern and [View Full Entry]

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