Fromagerie L’Amuse, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Affineurs and selectors of Oude Beemster & Wilde Weide
Our selection of Dutch Goudas are sourced by our friends Betty and Martin Koster of L’Amuse Fromagerie in Amsterdam. L’Amuse have developed close and long-term relationships with farmers, cheesemakers and affineurs across the Netherlands. Betty and Martin work in partnership with those producers to develop and select the most interesting and flavourful cheeses and help to support the work of small production dairies.
The L’Amuse team hand-select each batch of Gouda for the Borough Cheese Company to ensure we receive cheeses that have full and distinctive flavours. Our selection from L’Amuse includes Oude Beemster, Ruyge Weyde and Wilde Weide.
The L’Amuse Signature Gouda, Oude Beemster is produced by CONO, a cooperative of dairy farmers and cheesemakers in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Beemster Polder in Northern Holland. The cooperative was set up in 1901 to improve the livelihoods of local dairy farmers.
CONO’s new cheese dairy, De Tijd, aims to be the greenest cheese dairy in the world and will contribute to CONO’s future in a way that suits their heritage. CONO makes cheese in a traditional way but using the most modern and sustainable technology. Batches of this exceptional Gouda are hand-picked at source for maturation under the supervision of L’Amuse, before being sent to us when they are perfectly ripe.
Ruyge Weyde is a Dutch Boerenkaas (meaning farmhouse) gouda made just east of the town of Gouda in Southern Holland. Produced by brothers, René and Sander von Vilet who are the fifth generation of their family to make the cheese, proudly follow a very traditional style of Dutch cheesemaking. Ruyge Weyde has held full organic status since 2018.
The cheese is named after the polder on which the farm is located, where the herd are grazed on meadowland from April to November. In the winter months, they feed on dried grass from the farm to produce to highest quality raw milk that is packed full of flavour.
Aged for 18 months, Ruyge Weyde has a creamy and buttery texture that melts in the mouth and robust flavours of fruit and spice.
Wilde Weide is a Dutch Boerenkaas (farmhouse) Gouda made by Jan and Roos van Schie on their family farm near Warmond, South Holland. Their farm is situated on a lake island, or polder, called Zwanburgerpolder within The Netherlands ‘green heart’, famed for its beauty and rich agricultural landscape. Wilde Weide means wild meadow in Dutch and reflects the diet their small herd of Montbelliarde cows enjoy which includes a rich variety of grasses, flowers and herbs that are naturally and biodynamically grown on the farm. Batches of Wilde Weide are regularly selected by L’Amuse and matured for around 12 months.
Each year, Dom and a group of mongers head out to The Netherlands to spend time with Betty and Martin and to visit the cheesemakers and maturation cellars which allows us to engage with each stage of the production and maturation process to refine our selection and continue our education.