Cheesemakers Willem van den Hoek, left, and Charles Field, with That Dutchman’s Farm, display the Best Blue Cheese award the company recently won. Submitted photo
The farm’s Dragon’s Breath Blue cheese was named the winner of the Best Blue Cheese through the inaugural Canadian Cheese Awards.
“We were quite surprised,” said manager Margaretha van den Hoek Field about the win. “We had been a finalist for a lot of years with Dragon’s Breath Blue but have never won it.”
The awards ceremony was held at the St. Lawrence Market North in Toronto on Monday and Margaretha said her parents, along with her sister, were in attendance.
“I think the award will have a positive impact on the business. A lot of people thought we had won the award before, but we hadn’t,” she said.
The farm has won awards in the past for their Gouda products, most recently in 2011.
“This was actually a new competition,” said van den Hoek Field. “These were flavourful awards, produced by The Great Canadian Cheese Festival, where the other awards are through Dairy Farmers of Canada.”
The newest award, a medallion, is already on display at the farm, which is owned and operated by Maja and Willem van den Hoek.
The cheese farm was also nominated for flavoured cheese with its Jalapeno Gouda, gouda cheese with its Old Growler Gouda, and best Maritimes cheese with Dragon’s Breath Blue.
For the complete list of winners, visit http://www.cheeseawards.ca/currentnews/. For more on That Dutchman’s Farm, visit http://www.denhoek.ca.
Twitter: @TDNRaissa
