Cheese doesn't get better than this

It's September at Zettenalp, and all the hard work of Patrick and Manuela over the summer comes to fruition, as the farmers and their families come up to the alp to claim their cheese - to drink wine on the grass where the cows that produced the milk graze. What a spectacle. What an antidote to Lidl.

Fame

Local lad from the Kampf family in Sigriswil came second in a national schwingfest - big celebrations in the school hall (our Mayor doing the honours).

Black death

Bumper crop of Horn of Plenty (aka Trumpet of Death) Craterellus cornucopioides - enough for three nights of family pastas.

And a few of my favourite; the hedgehog mushroom Hydnum repandum.

Soft fruits

In autumn, we walked along the lanes under Zettenalp to collect berries - very small this year due to the cold summer, but enough to place alongside our ice creams.

Agrimony

Four Agrimonies have appeared in the meadow - and they were not seeded. It's little things like this that brighten up my days.

Blessed are the Cheesemakers



I remember coming across the term 'transhumance' in a geography lesson in school - the movement of livestock between summer and winter pastures. And this has been taking place around our village for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The high summer pasture above us, at the foot of the Sigriswiler Rothorn, is called Zettenalp.

Here there are two farms dedicated to summer grazing and production of Alpine cheese - Uber Zettenalp and Unter Zettenalp. We visited the latter.

By ancient charter, named farming families have the right to bring one or two cows up to the alp to graze and have their milk made into cheese. Unter Zettenalp can house 40 cows.

For 100 days, from June to September, the cheesemakers Patrick and Manuela work 15 hour days 7 days a week tending and milking the cows and making cheese. Its a gruelling scedule, but they are made of the right stuff. They produce six cheese per day - each of which will weigh an average of 20kg - that's 10,000 kg of cheese over the summer.

The cheeses are stored in the 'Spycher' labelled with the date, and cleaned everyday - ready for distribution to the farmers in September.

Even more moths

I've been lazy as usual with the moth trap - and I am using the excuse of a wet summer. But I have managed two new species - Green Silver-lines and Small Magpie Moth.

I often see Hummingbird Hawkmoths during summer days in the herb garden feeding, as you'd expect, like hummingbirds - probing their long 'tongues' into flowers whilst hovering on the wing. Difficult to photograph, as they never keep still - but I managed to take this snap in the nieghbour's garden.

Hay time

The farmers around me have been cutting their meadows throughout the year, and storing the hay in their barns.

By mid-July it was time to make the first cut of my flower meadow, which was beginning to look tired.

The Spring flowers have seeded, but it always feels a shame to cut down the first summer flowers which are acting as a pollen and nectar source for insects - most obviously Lady's Bedstraw, Marjoram, Umbellifers and Knapweed.

And showing their faces for the first time - Betony and a species of Dianthus.

And after the cut, a bouquet for the most beautiful woman in the village.

Swinging Sigriswil

Our neighbour village Sigriswil hosted the Oberland Schwingfest.

The school playing fields became an open air stadium.

The flags of Bern, Switzerland and Sigriswil were flying.

The prizes were on display.

And the winner was Kilian Wenger from Diemtigtal - past Swiss champion, and poster boy for Migro supermarkets.