The best cheese comes from the best milk and at Beemster that starts with our unique slate-blue soil.
At Beemster, we believe artisan cheesemaking starts with the earth. To explain why our soil is so special—and why it’s the key to our award-winning cheese—let’s travel back in time to the early 17th century and the creation of the legendary Beemster Polder.
Beemster cows graze the nutritious grass of the polder; a centuries old pasture that was once a coastal lagoon filled with mineral-rich seawater. Polder, the Dutch word for “reclaimed land”, is notorious for nutrient saturated deposits that are prime for growing robust vegetation. After being drained by Dutch engineers, the clay bottoms of these coastal pools proved to be fertile beds for planting and mineral-rich as the ocean water they once held.
The Beemster polder is located just miles from the North Sea and is over 400 years old. Our cows graze on fertile grasses to produce milk that contains healthy omegas, vitamins, and minerals. All of these nutrients can be traced back to the soil and clay beds of the polder, the water, and even the salty breeze of the neighboring sea.
Each of our cows consume over one hundred pounds of sweet polder grass to produce seven gallons of what we consider to be the finest cow’s milk in the world. Laden with the very same minerals found in our home soil, those seven gallons of milk become seven pounds of rich, luscious Beemster cheese.
The rest is history. Our unique Beemster Polder terroir cannot be imitated or replicated. Its characteristics are found in the tender grass that has been grazed by Beemster cows for over one hundred years. It is a pedigree that you can experience in every slice of Beemster cheese. Beemster lovers taste the difference.
