Red and yellow. I get a craving for blushing apples and earthy nuts when I cycle through the forest of fall colors. Program of the day: a group tour Leiden local food. Let’s taste that great combination of salty cheese and sweet/ sour apple!
Local food I can’t keep to myself
As you might have noticed from my previous posts I like local food and I love gettting it in Leiden area. Now I’ve discovered some pretty awesome places on my bike rides through the Dutch countryside and I can’t keep them to myself.
Women’s group tour Leiden local food & drinks
That is why today I explore Holland by bike together with seven international women. A group of power women who are enthusiastic, smart and energetic. We take the smallest cycle paths , meadows on both sides, a canal in between. We struggle with fences and flat bicycle tires, but nothing can stop us. All we need to keep going is the sunshine, each other and good food. Because that is what this is: a group tour Leiden local food: Holland cheese & apples
Apple pie and raw milk
Our first stop is in the middle of the Leiden polder park, where we taste an apple pie made from apples from the region. Later on we’ll do a guided tour at an apple orchard, but first it’s time to hit the road and find that cheese farm.
A twirling cycling path takes us through the countryside around Leiden. At the first dairy farm we pour ourselves a nice glass of fresh, raw milk. In the farmers shop it’s immensely crowded. The cheese farmer looks tired, they’ve just had a big party to celebrate their award winning cheeses.
What’s your age, cheese?
At the next cheese farm, by far my favorite, we get to taste all sorts of cheeses. Gouda cheese of 40+ and 30+ as well as 20+ Leiden cheese. I only find out now that this cheese farmer specialises in the low fat cheeses and yoghurt. She keeps giving us more cheese to taste and when I tell her we really have to go, she gives us a bag of different cubes of cheese. So sweet!
The apple in the cheese tour
So where is that apple in the group tour Dutch cheese and apple? At the apple orchard. Jan, the fruit grower gives us a tour and shows us the difference between the plum, pear, cherry and apple trees. He tells us about his grandfather and the tractor he used, about the land, when an apple tree gives the best apples. After the hot summer, there are very few apples left. Still, the ones still left look juicy and tasty. We pick one and choose a table. We need a bit of a break from cycling. The local fresh juice tastes amazing.
What a day! Can’t wait to show you my ‘hidden gems’ in Delft, Hague, Leiden, Gouda and Keukenhof area!
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