A Pair of Fall Festivals, Part 1: Cheesy Affairs

When you think of Swiss cheese, what do you imagine?  If you don't live here, you probably see in your mind's eye something like the enormous hole-y hunk above.  That's because what the Americans and most of the rest of the world call "Swiss" cheese is really only one kind of Swiss cheese, the kind above - Emmentaler (aside: I would really like to know what someone had planned for that 1.5 kg piece). I find it very difficult to not correct poor deli workers when I'm in the States who innocently ask me what cheese I want on my sandwich.

Banish all thoughts of too-touristy Cherry the Cow over in Gruyère - if there was ever a place to get an education on what are really the thousands of kinds of Swiss cheese, the 6th annual....



...Swiss Cheese Market is the place to go.  Huttwil is a small village in the Emmental near Bern - though not worth visiting on a normal day, the weekend of the cheese market set the whole place abuzz as thousands of people poured in to get their cheesy fill.  The two main roads were lined from end-to-end with market stalls, and what seemed like every dairy in the country brought their specialties to display and sell.



Fresh, soft, mild, medium, aged, raw-milk, cow-milk, buffalo-milk, sheep-milk, goat-milk, organic,  mountain-made, crumbled, grated, herbed, spiced, smoked, salted, cured, blue, hemp-wrapped, wineleaf-wrapped, wood-wrapped...the variety was absolutely staggering. The best part? The endless free samples, no question.  But once you tear your fingers away from all those beckoning cubes, you start to notice how fun the names are, too.  Gondelichäs (cable car cheese),  Durchblickkäse (see-through cheese), der kleine Berner (the little Bernese), Sommerhimu (summer sky - a blue cheese), Ämmitaler Müntschi (Emmentaler kiss), Flösserkäse (rafter's cheese) and Füürige Giovanni (fiery Giovanni - with chili) are just a few of the creative and eye-catching cheeses I saw.









Once I got tired of sampling, for lunch there was a choice of... cheese.  A Militärkäseschnitte is a thick slice of whole wheat bread spread with a sticky cheese-herb mixture and then deep fried until the outside forms a crispy crust and the inside cheese is all gooey.  Yes...you read that right.  This was not a low-fat lunch, not even close - nor did I want it to be.  The day was quite chilly so a belly full of hot cheese, a glass of crisp white wine to cut the grease, and a seat at one of the communal tables in the town square with some friendly locals was just the thing to warm me up. 

Alternately, I could have had en Chäsbrätu, which is, well, more cheese on bread. But different! Select your flavor of raclette from the case (chili, herb, garlic, smoked, pepper, bacon, or plain) and watch a slice of it be melted on the spot and poured over the bread, which you then eat with your hands like an open-faced sandwich.  It's always whole wheat - white bread is simply not flavorful or sturdy enough to stand up to a cheese cascade of this magnitude.



Speaking of raclette and fondue, in addition to the classic ingredients and gourmet mixes on sale, there were a couple twists on those two traditional Swiss cheese dishes that I had never seen before.   One stall was selling ingenious fondue bread loaves studded with bacon, the squares already scored and ready to be torn off and dipped in the pot.



Another stand boasted raclette-for-one kits that could be easily snapped together and heated with two tea-light candles - perfect for your melted-cheese cravings on the go.



There were a few hunks of the non-cheese variety as well....



...ahem. Though cheese was obviously the main theme of the market, a secondary focus was on products aus der Region - from the region. A special tent housed local non-dairy craftsmen and producers selling everything from wood carvings and calligraphy to liqueurs, jams, mushrooms, sausages, and sweets.  On a stage set up in the main square, folk-music and -dancing groups entertained the crowds.





There were even some special guests aus der Region accompanied by a demonstration of how their milk is processed to turn it into cheese. The kid's face just cracks me up!



With way too much cheese in both my stomach and my shopping bag, I reluctantly called it a day.  Lasting only a weekend, the pleasure and the pain of festivals like this one is that you have to wait a whole year for them to roll around again.  Luckily, dairies are as common as cows here so I don't have to wait nearly that long for my next taste of scrumptious Swiss cheeses!