File:The Cheese Testers • Holland's Last Cheese Market • Woerden • THE NETHERLANDS.webm

English: It is late in the morning when the last blocks of cheese arrive. The town’s local farmers have come together to determine the year’s bragging rights. Local pride. Who makes the best cheese in the small Dutch town of Woerden?

With a drill, a sample is extracted. All of the cheeses here are best in their class. A single flaw can knock it out of the race. Too sweet, too salty? Every block is sliced in two smooth halves to check the moisture remaining inside the cheese. The air bubbles, the holes in the cheese, are they too big or too small? Are they evenly distributed throughout the cheese? Lastly, any unwanted smell can detract from the cheese’s taste and earns a bad mark. On this day, over 100 hundred cheeses are tested. Gouda in all various flavors and sizes. After being graded, each cheese is wrapped up, ready to be sold the next day at market. There was a time before globalization, a time before multinational corporations with expensive marketing campaigns. There was a time when farmers in tiny villages all across the Netherlands battled it out, but the contest wasn't really about who made the best cheese. It was about honoring a hard day’s work. It was about strengthening the local community. It was about encouraging your neighbor. A summer rain chills the air, as the market in Woerden draws to an end. A big thanks to: • the Janmaat family, who hosted the testing on 2004 (kaasboerderij-janmaat.nl) and to

• Kitty Kusters at Woerden Marketing for the inside information and on-the-scene support (woerdenmarketing.nl).