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When it comes to ‘cheesy’ tourist
attractions Gouda’s Cheese Market is right
up there with the very best of them. Gouda,
with population of 70 thousand is a city in
the western Netherlands’ province of South
Holland. If you enjoy insights into culinary
traditions and regional heritage it’s well
worth taking a look at the long-established
weekly market.
Subject to the weather being fine, the
market takes place each Thursday, with the
exception of Ascension Day, from the begin-
ning of April until the end of August. Stalls
selling local foodstuffs are manned from
around 10.00am to 1.00pm and locals don tra-
ditional costumes to convey how the market
was in bygone times. On the cobbles between
the city’s weigh house and town hall you’ll
see people dressed as farmers, maids in red
aprons and lace bonnets plus cheese shop
owners wearing white jackets and flat caps.
The city’s name is, of course, synonymous
with one of the world’s most popular cheeses.
Some estimates reckon more than half of all
the cheese consumed around the world is
Gouda in style. Of course, cheese lovers in
South Holland argue the original is best and
say it’s down to the lush, mineral-rich grass
of the low-lying fields around Gouda. Every
day, each dairy cow eats up to 100kg of the
grass in order to produce between 20 and 30
litres of milk. Cheeses of a similar style are
produced around the globe but do they match the flavour and texture of
cheeses made on nearby farms, in communities such as Bergambacht,
Haastrecht and Stolwijk?
Farmers from outlying villages have been bringing their produce
into Gouda, for sale on market days, since at least the 17
th
century. The
cobbled site today occupied by the marketplace was merely a sodden
field when Gouda’s Gothic town hall was constructed. It was built in
stone, well away from other buildings, after a fire destroyed much of
Gouda in 1438. The town hall’s balcony was once used as the site for
public executions and today provides fine views of activities unfolding
around the yellow cheeses that are laid out on the square on market days.
As you browse the stalls you might be distracted by the peal of the
carillon up on the east face of the town hall. It depicts Floris V, the count
who granted Gouda its charter in 1272. Mechanical figures circle the car-
illon two minutes after each half hour, helping avoid a cacophonic clash
with the bells of Sint-Janskerk (St John’s Church). At 123 metres in
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The cheese market is open once a week