Bram Bergkamp in front of his cheese shop at his uncle’s farm. Photo by Charlotte Verhagen / DCI Media for Eindhovens Dagblad Food technology student Bram Bergkamp put his studies on hold to make time for something he really enjoys: making and selling cheese. ‘Work is something for the rest of your life, so you have to like it’, says the 23-year-old student.
Outside at his uncle’s farm on the Veedrift, where Bergkamp has been helping out for years, is a kind of cottage: De Zandheuvel. As of recently, you can buy Bergkamp’s homemade cheese in there. In the farm, he found old tools that his grandmother used to make cheese. ‘I thought: nice to give that a try, too.’
The young cheesemonger, who studies food technology at Wageningen University, enjoyed it very much. ‘For my studies, I was behind my laptop all day. Making cheese allows me to put theory into practice. It’s a bacteriological process. If you see milk and cheese side by side, you can hardly imagine that one comes from the other.’
At first, it was still a hobbyist business. ‘First collect the milk from the cow in a bucket, quickly wrap blankets around it to keep the milk at temperature, and then start working at home. I had to keep adjusting the process. Fortunately, I received advice from Rien and Maria van de Ven, relatives of my mother. They owned a cheese farm themselves and tasted my cheese so I could improve it.’
Next summer, Bergkamp hopes to complete his studies. Then he wants to decide: does his cheese business have a future? ‘I work two days a week at a cheese maker in De Rips and am now using his stuff. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit, NVWA) has strict requirements for running a cheese factory. That is too big an investment for me at the moment. If there is enough perspective, I want to make cheese here on the farm.’
My girlfriend is not always happy with me because it all takes so much time
Bram Bergkamp, student and cheese farmer
He would love one day to take over their uncle’s farm with his brother Stan (18), who always wanted to be a farmer. ‘It won’t be arranged anytime soon, but that would be nice. Stan handling the farm and the cows and me running the dairy processing. That way, we could continue the farm for another generation. It’s nice that you can buy a product from the farmer instead of in the supermarket, isn’t it? And that you can see the cows and how cheese is made?
It’s a tough existence Bergkamp manages, with working and studying. Often he is busy until the late evening. ‘My girlfriend is not always happy with me because it all takes so much time’, he laughs. ‘She does help me, fortunately, especially with keeping up with my social media.’
No eggs with PFAS
The cheese assortment consists of young and semi-aged cheese and, starting this week, also cheese with herbs. We will have to wait a little longer for matured and old cheese because they need more time to ripen.
Bergkamp also recently started offering eggs. That was a little tricky, because eating eggs from a hobby farmer was discouraged because of PFAS risks. ‘I thought: what am I supposed to do with this? But my eggs come from free-range chickens. They stay indoors. If the chicken’s feed is safe, the egg is safe too. Besides, I have them checked every so often.’
Bergkamp is proud of his cheese. ‘This is an honest product. In the supermarket, there is cheese made from milk from which all kinds of substances have been removed. My cheese is from whole milk, with everything still in it. I also want to make progress in the area of animal welfare. We now have new stalls for the cows. With waterbeds in them, so they lie comfortably. I don’t have a waterbed at home, but the cows here do.’
Source: Eindhovens Dagblad/Arjen Vos