Beemster cheese

The specific taste of Beemster stems from the ingredients (milk from grass grown on sea-clay in a polder 4 meters below sea-level), that part of the production process (the stirring of the curd) is done by hand, and that the cheeses are ripened in changing conditions.

The new land, four meters below sea-level, was fertile and suitable for agriculture and dairy farming.

Until 1901, most of the dairy farmers delivered their milk and home-made cheese to local merchants.

In 1947, two other cooperatives (Concordia from Oudendijk and Ons Belang from Middelie) joined to form the De Combinatie ("The Combination").

CONO has about 475 farmers, and is one of the country's smallest such cooperatives;[2] it produces about 30,000 tons of Beemster each year.