As you already know, while we were in Zakopane, we decided to look for new places to eat… We focused on those that offered something at least theoretically different from the highlander’s inns that pop up like mushrooms. That’s why we visited Mała Szwajcaria (Little Switzerland) restaurant. We’ll write what we’ve eaten there and how it tasted compared with the Swiss specialties later. I’ll tell you just one thing: we missed Switzerland, real fondue and their… cheese
Chocolate, mountains, cheese… these are our main connotations with Switzerland.. Fondue and raclette – cheese, cheese and cheese again. When we went skiing to Laax in March, we enjoyed plenty of cheesy delicacies. It was great fun since we love cheese and eat it a lot in France, Italy and Spain and my heart starts beating faster when I manage to find Basque Istara cheese in Lidl.
In Laax, we didn’t leave our ski resort and apartment because we visited Nurnberg and Zurich before, and wanted to focus on skiing especially that we went skiing on 2 different shifts thanks to Maks: morning shift from 11 am to 1 pm and afternoon shift from 1.15 to 4.30 pm. However, due to our agreement with Laxx Tourist Office, we went for a trip to nearby Sennerei Andeer dairy.
The road from Laax to Andeer takes about 30-40 minutes and is full of beautiful views, picturesque houses and amazing mountains. The city itself is charming, calm and quiet. It looks deserted, with some little cafes or cheese shops around. It’s really tiny – only 850-900 inhabitants.
charming tiny Andeer
going to the dairy – comfy Maks piggybacking on his Dad!
amazing mountain views
After a short walk, we reach a charming little shop with cheese and dairy products (amazing yoghurts!) and then the dairy called “Stizun da Latg” in Romansh. The place itself is really small and it’s quite a shock to know that such delicious cheese comes from a little cellar. The owner tells us how the cheese is prepared, how long does it have to age and how often does it have be washed. Do you know that some types of cheese are washed in wine? I didn’t!
The dairy makes cheese exclusively from local cows’ milk. 5 local farmers and their 100 cows supply approx. 400 thousand litres of milk every year. I is later used to produce not only cheese but also cream or butter. All done traditional way. This tiny dairy produces 60 000 pieces of cheese a year!
Martin Bienerth (“Flo”) and his wife Maria are the owners. The curious thing about Martin is the fact that he’s a trained engineer and a former journalist that has been working as a shepherd in Alps in the summer, every year since he was 20. That made him take care of the tiny dairy in Andeer. There is a saying: “Good cheese starts on the field”. Therefore the conditions of cow grazing are very important. That includes the grass, herbs and flowers. He believes in local and natural things and that’s what he fights for in Andeer. He also says that cheese production requires love and passion, because “you can’t make good cheese when you’re angry”… 🙂
Martin tells us about specific kinds of cheese production, types of cheese, aging stages, since the cheese has to lie down a bit if you want it to be good. At least 6-8 weeks, but it tastes best after a few months, a year and sometimes even after 2 years of aging. That’s why Sennerei Andeer’s cellar is full of delicious-looking cheese rings at different aging stages.
after preparation and initial aging, cheese spends 24 hours in brine
cheese cleaning equipment
Each cheese is marked with the production month, the stripes indicate the quality of the milk
Some types of cheese are systematically washed in wine with herbs
cheese waiting to be eaten – after 6-8 months they’re ready to eat
Unfortunately Maks made it difficult for us to listen to these cheese stories, the place’s history and descriptions of different kinds of cheese. After a quick reconnaissance he informed us that he does not like this cellar and wants to go out and “look for a cat/sticks/stones”. Fortunately we got him interested in looking for a “cheese king” after a while. Children’s imagination is limitless; it’s good if the parent has at least a bit of it. 🙂
„when are we going to leave this place?”
In the end we were served two kinds of cheese. We could observe the difference coming from different aging times – the older the cheese the harder it gets. The 12-year old one was quite hard, a bit like parmesan. Very tasty with a taste of bitters. The “younger one”, 6-month old, was more like traditional cheese hat we eat every day – softer, milder and so tasty!
Have a tasty day! Eat some delicious cheese today! 🙂
the longer the cheese lies down, the harder it gets – we try 6-month old and 12-month old
local appenzeller
gorgonzola – like that? 🙂
camembert
camembert
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