Edam, within 100 yards of starting a random walk-about we came across this lovely canal…
Back in 1357 Edam was awarded the right to be a city and to create a toll-free harbor.That was the beginning of an amazing era of trade which brought merchants and shipbuilders to it’s shores and turned this small city into one of the region’s most important harbors!
The original Edam cheese, a small round cheese approximately 1.7 kilos in weight, came from the, you guessed it, little town of Edam, about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam. Most of the cheese made in Edam was sold for export. And this is probably why the cheese shipped from the harbour came to be known as Edam. The cheeses were also referred to as ‘cleyne casekens’ (little cheeses) or ‘klootkaasjes’ (little round cheeses). More than you ever needed or wanted to know about Edam cheese -right?
