Say... Gouda
Cheese makers bring a taste of the Netherlands to New Hamburg
ADAM VAN BERGEIJK believes making cheese is an art.
And he should know. The award-winning master cheese maker has been in the business for more than 30 years.
Last year, van Bergeijk — who’s called The Big Cheese around the farm — opened a new chapter in his career. He and his wife, Hannie, built a state-of-the-art plant on their dairy farm near New Hamburg and launched Mountainoak Cheese.
They sell their Gouda-style cheese, made from both pasteurized and unpasteurized milk, from a store on their farm on Huron Road about four kilometres southeast of New Hamburg.
“We didn’t know what to expect. . . . We weren’t sure people would be willing to come to the farm to buy the cheese,” Adam van Bergeijk says. But they’ve been pleasantly surprised. The cheese has been selling well with most of their customers coming from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Stratford and Woodstock. Some even drive from Toronto, he says. The store is open Fridays and Saturdays. The cheese is also sold by some specialty retailers.
The van Bergeijks’ story begins in the Netherlands. The couple took over Adam’s parents’ dairy farm in 1976, and in 1981 they both attended cheese-makers’ school in the city of Gouda. Gouda cheese is one of the oldest and most popular cheeses in the Netherlands, with records dating back to the 12th century.
The van Bergeijks began making and selling Gouda from the family farm, winning many awards. However, their sons wanted to farm as well and there was no room to expand the popular operation. The family began talking about immigrating to Canada where they already knew a few people, and in 1996, they came across their current farm in the New Hamburg area.
Within a year, they had relocated with their three teenaged children — and some of their cheese-making equipment — and built a modern dairy barn on the farm. For many years, van Bergeijk continued to make cheese only for their own >>