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Alkmaar in the Netherlands has the world’s biggest, most-visited and best cheese market, There is no prettier or more characteristic Dutch sight than this cheese market, with these guys in white running around carrying these big loads of cheese back and forth. What is going on? You are about to find out.
For centuries the cheese market has been important for the city of Alkmaar and in recent years it has developed into one of the leading visitor attractions in the country. It's an easy day trip from Amsterdam, just about 40 minutes away by train or by guided tour on a bus.
Alkmaar is much more than just cheese. It's a typical small Dutch city which means it has many historic, well-preserved buildings and beautiful canals lots of shops, restaurants, cafés and pedestrian lanes to stroll on. We will see more of the town in a different segment but for now we are focusing attention on the wonderful cheese market.
Almost 700 years ago, Alkmaar was already a cheese town. In 1365 the city was granted weighing rights and got their first cheese scale -- in 1612 this number of scales increased to four.
Over time, the cheese market frequently needed more space. Markets were the economic engine in those days, so houses were sometimes demolished to increase market space. Over the course of two centuries, it was enlarged no fewer than eight times before reaching its current dimensions.
Alkmaar's status as the cheese capital has become increasingly famous over the years and the cheese market became ever more popular, and now it’s the biggest in the country.
In the past, most cheese was transported by boat or horse. And this centuries-old tradition has survived in part to this very day. During every market, cheese laden boats sail from the North Holland Canal to the square, just as they did in the past.
The market is on every Friday from the end of March through September and during July and August it also functions on Tuesday evenings.
The cheese workers are members of the cheese guild, like a union, and they’re divided up into teams as shown by their hat colors, blue, yellow, red and green.
The overall manager is called the Cheese Father and he wears an orange hat.
We had a chance to speak with an official of the group who helped describe the situation for us
My position, is I was the Cheese Father of this guild for many years and now I am the tourist guide.
We’ll hear more from Kees Koopman during the program.
Right before 10.00 AM everyone waits for the market to get under way as the lady speaker welcomes visitors in as many languages as possible. She tells the general public about what they’re about to see at the market.
In a few minutes the bell is ringing and the market is starting.
At 10 am the bell rings (bell sound). It’s the sign indicating the start of the cheese market. The ringing of the bell is often done by a visitor to the market, at the invitation of the council of Alkmaar. For example it might be a famous Dutch person from sports or TV, or a foreign ambassador.
As soon as the market opens, the samplers and traders go to work. Inspecting cheese is more than just looking at its exterior. Cheese is knocked on and a special cheese scoop is used to obtain a piece, which is then crumbled between the fingers and smelled. And, naturally, it is tasted to assess the relation between taste, and the percentages of fat and moisture.
Many lucky people in the audience get a free taste and some of them even get to push that coring tool into the cheese, it's something like an apple corer and pull out a sample for themselves
It will come as no surprise that everybody will have a chance to purchase as much cheese as they want from the vendors who are surrounding the cheese market area - you'll see more of that coming right up.
Cheese is transported on the wooden barrow hanging between two cheese carriers, holding about 8 Gouda cheeses, each of them weighing 13,5 kilos. Carrying a heavy barrow, with a total weight of about 130 kilos.
Walking with that heavy barrow or stretcher appears much easier than it seems. But there is a special technique. In order to facilitate the walking rhythm and to prevent the stretcher from hitting their legs, the men walk 'out of step' in the strange looking cheese bearers' trot. This keeps the stretcher movement to a minimum, ensuring the barrow hangs as still as possible.
[Music plays]
We work you see with four groups, you see four different colors. Each group is seven people. There are six carriers and the seventh works on the scale - that is a very important man because in the early days, he counts the money from the buyers, the ones who have trade, for each kilo that we carry.
We've got the two big factories here in the north of the Netherlands and they make millions of kilos of cheese each year, and it goes around the world.