Cheese
One farm in the Kempen, a hundred and forty cheeses. Made by the other Boonens. No relation, we checked.
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Where it comes from
Kaasmakerij Catharinadal, in Achel, on ground where Franciscan sisters lived for centuries. Two brothers and their wives: Bert and Carine keep about a hundred red-and-white MRIJ cows on grass and clover, and Peter and Riet turn that raw milk into cheese the same day. Nothing added but salt. The family has sold from the farm since 1935.
The range
Around a hundred and forty cheeses from one farm: blues, washed rinds, white moulds, hard cheeses from young to old, goat and sheep beside the cows. What's in our counter changes; when a wheel runs out, the next one may still be ripening.
What makes it special
The Grevenbroecker, known abroad as Achelse Blauwe, is a blue that is never pierced. The curd is stacked by hand, slab on slab, and the blue grows in the seams, so the cut face marbles like stone. Ten weeks of patience, thirty-odd wheels a week. In 2009 it took Best Original Cheese at the Caseus Awards in Lyon. Peter spent years getting it mild enough for Riet, who refused to sell his first, sharper blue.