Cheese.
Is there anyone who doesn’t love a melty grilled cheese sandwich, preferably with a bowl of creamy tomato soup?
In the U.S. and Europe, cheese is a diet staple. There are hundreds of cheeses in dozens of countries and in many European locales, cheese is much more than a casual filler between two slices of Aunt Millie’s white bread or an anonymous partner in a club sandwich. In Europe, cheese is a way of life.
Erika and John Alyward, owners of Boulevard Market, are cheese experts. In fact,
they carry more than 180 different kinds of cheeses in their store and travel the world learning about cheese. So when I came across a story that I could only classify as “offbeat news,” I checked in with Erika to learn more.
Here’s the scoop: In October, Neal’s Dairy Yard, a leading cheese retailer in London, reported the theft of 24 tons of cheese valued at more than $500,000 in U.S. dollars, according to a report by the Associated Press. The robbery began in July when a buyer posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer ordered 950 “truckles” of specialty farm cheddar. A truckle is a wheel of cheese and it can vary in size and be coated in cloth or wax. The combined weight of the truckles in the heist is the equivalent of four full-grown elephants. The truckles Neal’s delivered were bound in cloth and encased in lard and had been aged 18 months, according to published reports. The London retailer shipped the cheese to France in September and only discovered the scam when the buyer didn’t pay the invoices and all contacts stopped answering calls from Neal’s. In October, Neal’s took to social media to alert cheesemongers around the world with a description of the hijacked cheddars. They also reported the theft to Scotland Yard.
A 63-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident and later released on bond. Since then, there hasn’t been any movement on the case. Plus, 22 tons of the 24 tons stolen remain missing.
Erika said a pound of cheese represents 10 gallons of milk. It’s not just the cows that are nurtured, either. Cheese has to be cared for, she said. It can’t be shoved into a container and left alone.
“People who make cheese invest their lives and livelihoods into the making of cheese,” Erika said.
In places where it is made, cheese represents a great investment on the part of the cheesemakers. Dairy farmers Tom Calver and Patrick Holden both supplied cheese to the distributor to help fill the stolen order. Holden said his cheese represented about 2 years of work, while Calver put his time investment at 3 years.
“The amount of work that’s gone into nurturing the cows, emphasizing the best farming practice, and transforming the milk one batch at a time to produce the best possible cheese is beyond estimation,” Calver said. “For that to be stolen, it’s absolutely terrible.”
According to Dan Saladino, a BBC journalist, cheddar is among the luxury food items that can bring very high prices on the black market, especially in countries where trade sanctions prevent imports of popular goods. The theft of the cheese, however, is more than just stolen goods. Saladino’s words support Erika’s assertion of how something as simple as cheese-making can have a far-reaching impact on producers and their families.
“For the cheesemakers, this isn’t just about a stolen food,” Saladino wrote. “The missing Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork represent ways of farming and food production that took thousands of years to evolve, shaped landscapes and became part of British culture, yet which have been all but lost in just a few generations.”
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