The Blind Cow
We’re not sure that cheese can be classed as a Scandinavian Aesthetic but couldn’t resist introducing you to one of our favorite food producers from Norway.
In a country where green clover fields and grazing cows are such a common sight, it’s surprising that cheese exports have so far been limited to Jarlsberg. It is, therefore, great news that Den Blinde Ku (The Blind Cow), Norway’s smallest dairy, is now ringing up strong sales at French and American cheese shops, and food fairs around the world.
Inger Rosenfeld, the entrepreneur behind Den Blinde Ku, started the company when she was given a blind cow as a 50th birthday present and taught herself all about dairy farming. The cheeses she started producing were first tried out in France (possibly the toughest cheese market in the world) and, having been given Gallic approval, have since found their way to the US and beyond.
All of Den Blinde Ku’s cheeses are hand-made and free of preservatives. Among their products are Ingers Blå (a blue cheese), Camenås (a Camembert Cheese), Jaktost (a hunting cheese for the US market), Gulrotost (an unusual carrot cheese) and our favorite Nøkkelost (a traditional Norwegian cheese made with cumin and cloves) .
The various cheese varieties are slowly finding the way into online gourmet shops but to find the full range you’ll have to make the pilgrimage to their farm-shop and cafe in Drøbak, Norway. Perhaps you'll get to meet Melissa the blind cow.
A new Swedish study that followed 19,000 middle-aged women for 9 years shows that those who consumed one serving of full fat milk or cheese had lower weights overall than those who did not. The new findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, do not find a consensus among all experts in the field although there is a belief that calcium intake aids in keeping weight lower which has not been confirmed. Regardless of the reasons, this is good news for the cheese lovers amongst us.
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