Cheese farm

West of Jokkmokk and just above the Arctic Circle we, Hanz and Rianne, live with our animals in a small village called Skabram. On our farm you find sheep, chickens, dog Jussie, cat Lucifer and of course our pride; Swedish Mountain cows.

In early days cows were held on small scale in Jokkmokk community. The forest meadows in Skabram were once pastures. With the disappearance of the cows, the pastures turned back into forest. In 2006 we started the restoration of these woodlands. We have cut down trees, dug ditches and routed the land. Now we have three acres of forest meadow. In the coming years we want to restore this forest meadow into beautiful pastures.

In 2007 came the first two cows, Dolly and Lordy. Hanz made of the milk in our kitchen yogurt and coffee cheese, a specialty in Lapland. With the construction of the stable and small cheese factory in 2009 we were able to keep more cows and to make cheese in a professional way.
At this moment we have ten cows we milk twice a day. Near the milking stable is our small dairy where we make an unpasteurized hard cheese in the Dutch tradition of Farmer cheese.

For us, the health and wellbeing of our cows are very important. Every day we work with love and lots of fun with our cows and calves. They are all individual characters and have names such as Juttan, Svalka, Gullan, and of course the famous Dutch name Antje! We keep our cows according the deep straw bed system. They can choose whether they like to lie inside in the deep straw bed or go outside and walk through the forest meadow. The cows always have access to fresh hay and during milking time they get some concentrates.

Our calves and sheep we give silage, which we produce ourselves on pastures in the neighborhood area.

When you buy a Skabram cheese, you not only get an exclusive taste, but you will also support small-scale business, where products are made using traditional methods and where there is much attention for the wellbeing of cows. At the same time you get a natural product without artificial additives!