British style cheese

Not often I wander around the City of Trondheim as it is some 500+ kilometres north of Oslo. So the occation was my mother-in-law’s aniversary, inviting the whole family for a week-end to Trondheim. She and her husband have lived much of their adult life there, but moved to metropolitan Oslo almost twenty years ago. On my way to a guided tour of the cathedral Nidarosdomen I passed through a farmer’s marked and ran across a farmstead dairy offering British style cheeses among other things.
In spite of both a cultural, geographic and tradewise close connection to the British Isles, not much cheese inspiration has crossed the North Sea. British style cheese is something we often find in the USA, especially up north east in beautiful New England. That is something hailing from the Mayflower and all the consequences that brought, but I am puzzled that our small scale dairies have seen almost no value in learning from British cheese makers. However, without claiming perfect knowledge of who has found their inspiration where, there are at least two farmstead dairies doing it the British way. Torbjørnrud – a hotel, a farm and a dairy – with their cheddar style cheese; one from cow’s milk and one from ewe’s milk, I have been ware of quite a while. The “new” dairy that I found is Hindrum gårdsysteri at Vanvikan, Fosen. Fosen being the peninsula across the fjord from Trondheim. And Trøndelag, in case you wonder, is the county.

British style cheese from Trøndelag, NorwayRead More »