From mountain farms to local cheesemakers

Norwegian cheese is finally considered among the world’s greatest. How did it get there? 

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Norwegians love cheese. In fact, we’ve never eaten more cheese than right now – close to 19 kilos a year per head, placing us close the French when it comes to the world’s most cheese-loving nations.

 

Norway’s cheese adventure started with brown cheese in the Gudbrandsdalen valley more than 150 years ago. Still, Norwegian cheese has only recently gained international recognition, with two gold medals in the World Cheese Awards in 2016 and 2018.

 

In the Oslo region, traditions live side by side with bold experimentalism from independent cheesemakers.

 

From mountain farms to large-scale production

 

Traditionally, cheese was made in the areas where animals would be grazing in the summer. Calving took place in the spring, which led to a lot of milk being produced on the summer farms. Curdling became a method for preserving the milk, without any resources going to waste. 

 

“Norwegian farming traditions go way back, and the households with animals had to utilize all resources. Producing milk products such as cheese and butter became a way of doing this. The households learned how to use the different byproducts of the milk in specific ways”, says Ingrid Lamark, project manager for Norges Bygdekvinnelag (The Associated Country Women of Norway) and one of the driving forces behind the website Norsk tradisjonsmat, dedicated to different traditional food traditions around Norway.  

 

The country’s first dairy, Rausjødalen in Tolga, Østerdalen, started producing cheese in 1856, and soon more dairies got organized in the cooperative TINE. Today, TINE represents the volume of Norwegian cheese production, while a growing number of innovative dairy farms and farmers create world-class cheeses. Many of them are found in the Oslo region.

 

Dairy farms in picturesque surroundings

 

The idyllic Hadeland district is the home of Thorbjørnrud ysteri –  Norway’s sole hotel farm. Their five cheese varieties are all curdled in what used to be the hotel’s swimming pool, and a whopping 10 tons of cheese are being produced here every year. If you check, most of the food you’ll be served is local, produced by the hosts themselves.

 

The family farm Grøndalen Gård is situated in Nes, Akershus. They produce the ecological hit Nýr – a velvety, white fresh cheese with a distinct, fresh and acidic touch. Mother’s love is of the essence at this farm, where the cows and their calves get to spend months together. Several chefs have fallen in love with the cheese, which has made its way into top restaurants such as Maaemo and Kontrast in Oslo. Nýr has been awarded with Norway’s first award for animal welfare in food production, Dyrevernmerket. 

 

Southwest of Nes, in Hokksund, is where you’ll find Eiker Gårdsysteri. This dairy farm’s cheeses are made exclusively from the milk produced by the 60-70 cows roaming freely on their pasture. The cows get to decide when to be milked, when it’s bedtime or whether to eat in- or outdoors.

 

Eiker Gårdsysteri collaborates with Blaafarveværket in Vikersund, an 8 kilometre museum mixing art, culture and nature. Deep inside the cobolt mines, in a specially designed mining shaft 200 metres into the mountain and 50 metres underground, the award-winning Gruveost (“mining cheese”) is being ripened. Due to the humidity and climate of the mine, the cheese thrives down here.

 

Say (brown) cheese

 

Although the mild, yellow cow’s milk cheese may be the most popular, many Norwegians have a soft spot in their hearts for the caramelly taste of the brown cheese. It’s one of our proudest food traditions – and unique to Norway.

 

Brown cheese is really a byproduct of cheese production, but according to Lamark from Norges Bygdekvinnelag, it’s important to keep the connection between the brown cheese and the white cheese in mind.

 

“If you’re going to produce white cheese from ten litres of milk, you’ll be left with nine litres of whey. Using this to make brown cheese was a way of using all resources to the maximum effect, which goes way back to our long farming traditions”, she says.

 

The first written accounts of brown cheese dates back to 1646. But it was not until 1863, when milkmaid Anne Hov from the Gudbrandsdalen valley added cream to the whey cheese, and later goat’s milk, that the brown cheese as we know it – Gudbrandsdalsost the most popular among them – came to its own.

 

Today, Anne Hov’s old farm Solbråsetra is a museum. In the summer you can visit the farm, visit the milkmaids working there and taste freshly boiled Gudbrandsdalsost.

 

Cheese as artworks

 

There’s still cheese production in Gudbrandsdalen today. Just northwest of  Solbråsetra, at the gate of the mighty Jotunheimen mountains, you’ll find the mountain village Heidal. Cheese has been produced here for countless years, and these days, Heidal Ysteri is keeping the tradition alive.

 

The Heidal cheese is made the old way, and by using a mold made by a local woodcarver, each brown cheese becomes a work of art. You can buy the cheese at Ysteriet kafé og bakeri, along with all the pastries and breads your heart may desire.

 

In other words: Tradition combined with innovation. That’s a precise way to sum up the Norwegian cheese adventure as well.

 

 

Did you know...

• In a survey from 2015, Norwegians were asked which condiment they would pick if they only could choose one. 28 percent chose yellow cheese, while 10 percent went for brown cheese.

 

• Gudbrandsdalen is not only the birthplace of the brown cheese. This is also where the cheese slicer was invented by Thor Bjørklund in 1925. The cheese slicer is now manufactured in Ringebu, where you’ll find the world’s largest of its kind, measuring a whopping 8 metres.

 

 

Where to get your cheese fix:

 

• Håøya Naturverksted – Håøya

On the largest island in the Oslofjord, Håøya, milk from cashmere goats milked by hand is turned into white cheese every summer. Visit the café, where you can buy cheese, bread, cashmere caramels and other homemade delicacies. To go to Håøya, catch the B21 from Aker Brygge.

• Bygdø Kongsgård – Oslo

The Royal Farm in Oslo makes and sells a variety of dairy products – including a wide range of cheeses – made from ecological milk from their own cows.

 

• Ysteri Pultostkoppen – Ringerike

A local craft farm in Åsbygda, Ringerike. Try their pultost, a soft, mature Norwegian sour milk cheese flavored with caraway seeds. You can buy the cheese in local stores.

• Holt Gård – Undrumsdal

Holt Gård is a cosy farm situated between Horten and Tønsberg. Buy vegetables, eggs, meat, fresh cheese, yoghurt and ice cream in their café.

 

• Ommang Søndre – Løten

The Norwegian cousin of Parmigiano-Reggiano is one of many cheeses produced and sold in the open, slightly hilly landscape of Hedmarken at the farm Ommang Søndre.

 

• Bakken Øvre Gårdsmat – Løten

In the same area, Bakken Øvre Gårdsmat offer everything from pultost, ice cream and sour cream to meat products.

• Ost & Sånt, Mathallen – Oslo

Ost & Sånt in the food court Mathallen specialises in tasty, Norwegian farm cheeses, as well as a selection of imported cheeses.

 

• Gutta – Oslo

Gutta på Haugen is located in the St. Hanshaugen neighbourhood, with branches in Mathallen and in Sandvika. The place to go for cheeses and charcuterie.