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.