Last week, the Delft International Neighbor Group arranged an excursion to a cheese farm near Gouda. It was a great way to explore the Dutch countryside.
The Dutch countryside is very beautiful with nice canals and windmills, dotted with nice green cow pastures. We visited Mrs. De Boer’s Cheese Farm. Mrs. de Boer showed us how to make cheese the traditional Dutch way. Buying cheese in the supermarket gives you no indication of how much effort these farmers put in to making cheese! It’s pretty darn hard work! And not just once or twice, but everyday % day after day. I admire Mrs. De Boer%s commitment to her work; even after working so hard, she was very enthusiastic about our visit and answered all our questions.
Mrs. de Boer has a pretty big farm % about 160 cows, 100 pigs, 10 sheep, and 2 goats. Now you may ask what the sheep and goats are doing here? Well, they’re used as natural ‘lawn mowers’! The sheep care for the grass in the front yard, the goats take care of the vegetable garden next to house. We were told that the goats weren%t working nowadays, due to the cold weather. But I suppose they were just lazy like me % finding any excuse not to work!
It sure felt great to get out of the city and have a breath of fresh air and be with these beautiful animals. Whenever I take a train I see from the window beautiful green Dutch farms, cows grazing, small canals. But on this day, for the first time, I was standing on a Dutch farm with the beautiful cows and faraway I could see a train passing. It sure felt good to be on the ‘other side’ for a change!
After our visit to the cheese farm we drove to the pretty town of Schoonhoven, which is famous for its silversmiths. After some good lunch in Schoonhoven, it was time to go to the Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a very beautiful place and has windmills, lots of windmills. We had the opportunity to go inside a windmill. I didn%t expect a windmill to be so big inside.
The author, Amish Patel, is a PhD student from the U.S.
The Delft International Neighbor Group (ING) organizes classes, cultural excursions, social get-togethers for TU Delft’s international students and researchers. Membership is free. For information about joining ING%s next excursion, contact Cindy Bosman at
C.Bosman@ewi.tudelft.nl
Last week, the Delft International Neighbor Group arranged an excursion to a cheese farm near Gouda. It was a great way to explore the Dutch countryside. The Dutch countryside is very beautiful with nice canals and windmills, dotted with nice green cow pastures. We visited Mrs. De Boer’s Cheese Farm. Mrs. de Boer showed us how to make cheese the traditional Dutch way. Buying cheese in the supermarket gives you no indication of how much effort these farmers put in to making cheese! It’s pretty darn hard work! And not just once or twice, but everyday % day after day. I admire Mrs. De Boer%s commitment to her work; even after working so hard, she was very enthusiastic about our visit and answered all our questions.
Mrs. de Boer has a pretty big farm % about 160 cows, 100 pigs, 10 sheep, and 2 goats. Now you may ask what the sheep and goats are doing here? Well, they’re used as natural ‘lawn mowers’! The sheep care for the grass in the front yard, the goats take care of the vegetable garden next to house. We were told that the goats weren%t working nowadays, due to the cold weather. But I suppose they were just lazy like me % finding any excuse not to work!
It sure felt great to get out of the city and have a breath of fresh air and be with these beautiful animals. Whenever I take a train I see from the window beautiful green Dutch farms, cows grazing, small canals. But on this day, for the first time, I was standing on a Dutch farm with the beautiful cows and faraway I could see a train passing. It sure felt good to be on the ‘other side’ for a change!
After our visit to the cheese farm we drove to the pretty town of Schoonhoven, which is famous for its silversmiths. After some good lunch in Schoonhoven, it was time to go to the Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a very beautiful place and has windmills, lots of windmills. We had the opportunity to go inside a windmill. I didn%t expect a windmill to be so big inside.
The author, Amish Patel, is a PhD student from the U.S.
The Delft International Neighbor Group (ING) organizes classes, cultural excursions, social get-togethers for TU Delft’s international students and researchers. Membership is free. For information about joining ING%s next excursion, contact Cindy Bosman at
C.Bosman@ewi.tudelft.nl
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