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Why a small country became one of the world’s largest dairy exporters, and what the soil has to do with it.
You cannot plough peat
The west of the Netherlands sits on peat. Arable farming does badly there, grass grows excellently, so livestock it became. The soil chose the farming, not the other way round.
Subsidence
Drained peat compacts and sinks. That is why parts of Holland now lie metres below sea level, and why the mills and pumping stations became necessary.
Cheese as shelf life
Milk spoils, cheese does not. Before refrigeration, cheese was the only way to carry summer surplus into winter and abroad.
The market towns
Gouda, Alkmaar, Edam, Woerden, Hoorn and Purmerend held market rights and became trading places. The cheese names refer to those markets rather than to the makers.
Where to look
Cheese markets in Alkmaar and Gouda, and farms with their own dairies in the Green Heart.