Cheese!

February 2, 2020

By: Jan Jeronimus | juditcovic

Students make unique Rotterdam cheese

Students from Wellant mbo Rotterdam have made a unique cheese: the first 100% Rotterdam cheese! They made the cheese at their school in Rotterdam out of the milk from the cows of Floating Farm, the floating farm in the Merwehaven in Rotterdam. Simin Latifi, dairy expert at the Floating Farm, received the special cheese from the proud students on December 10^th.

Simin Latifi, dairy expert at Floating Farm, receives the unique cheese from Wellant student Roos de Jong. From left to right: Simin Latifi, Siena Wagelmans, Roos de Jong, Annette Hooghwerff, Giani Kersbergen, Felicia Mohabier, Pascal Stam, Sebastian van Dijk and Erik Vermunt.

Mbo Food teacher Erik Vermunt says: “We worked together with the Floating Farm for the World Food Festival. During the practical course dairy processing, we found out that there was no existing real Rotterdam cheese yet. There are cheeses that have a name related to the city, but they are not made in Rotterdam from the milk of Rotterdam cows. Until now. It is very nice to be able to let the students make something so unique. ”

Just right

Dairy expert Simin Latifi is impressed by the performance of the students: “Great accomplishment that they have made such delicious cheese. You can see from the structure that they really paid attention; the cheese is not too hard or too soft, but just right. ”

Making the cheese was not easy, says student Pascal: “It is quite difficult to do well. You really have to take the time and it all listens very carefully.”

In addition to hard cheeses, the students used the milk from Floating Farm to make ice cream, yogurt, kefir and soft cheeses such as feta, brie and blue mold cheese. The products are not (yet) for sale but intended for personal use. To the great pleasure of the students. Student Annette: “I had my colleagues taste the cheese at work. They liked it very much. If we would start producing this cheese, they would definitely buy it! ”

Continuation

There will certainly be a follow-up, according to Vermunt. “A taste for more, literally and figuratively speaking! We learned a lot. And for their first time ever making cheese, the students did a very good job. So that looks promising! It would also be nice to continue the pleasant collaboration with Floating Farm. How nice would it be to organize cheese making workshops at Floating Farm, for example? ”

Acknowledgements: many thanks to EUROPEA-Netherlands and Jan (NL) 🙂

Photo: from Jan (NL)