Since 2017, Cheese Berlin has presented an award: The Window to the Farm. With this award, we honour a dairy that comes particularly close to our ideals. A producer that demonstrates how and that it is possible

• to use resources sustainably,

• work with natural conditions instead of against them,

• respect animals as partners,

• not to exploit our own resources or those of our employees,

• achieve long-term financial stability.

A farm characterised by a diversity of life, where everything and everything seems to have its place, meaning and purpose. So many people talk about regional, sustainable and good: the people at Marienhöhe live it. Red mountain cattle, herding dogs, saddleback pigs, geese, butterflies, an hour's drive from Berlin. Once a sandy desert, truly flourishing landscapes have been created on the fields surrounded by forest: with a lot of labour, dedication, love and closeness to nature. The wind catches in humming hedges, geese chatter, cows wander through the forest to pasture. Their milk is processed completely untreated into butter, curd and cheese right next to the barn, the pigs get the whey, the people enjoy the bacon. Marienhöhe is one of the oldest and first biodynamically farmed farms in the world. Not a paradise, but perhaps a first glimpse of one.

The van de Voort family in Lunteren near Utrecht have repeatedly disproved the supposedly ‘impossible’. Natural pastures, no antibiotics: it works. Cows with horns in open stalls: yes. Matured Dutch cheese without plastic coating: yes. Top-quality cheese made from Jersey milk: of course, and long before it became a trend. Your Remeker is a small miracle because it was created in the context of the Dutch cheese landscape, which is trimmed for efficiency; a tasty, extremely flavoursome testimony to inner independence.

In 2019, we honoured someone with this award who has been working against the tide for years to turn back the proverbial clockwork of history. Whose efforts should be a warning to us of how difficult it is to regain lost ground. Which reminds us how important it is to preserve as much as possible, even if only as an option for some. To process untreated raw milk, to use our own cultures, to actually express terroir in the form of cheese. Somebody who is doing everything for good cheese, fighting politics and making a change without being egocentric. The 2019 Window to the Farm went to Joe Schneider and his Stilton made from raw milk, the Stichelton.

2020/2021 we have not allocated an award.

In 2022, we had the honour of presenting our award to the fantastic Sabine Jürß from Scellebelle in Münster, Westphalia. Sabine is an exceptional example of the consistency of holistic farm management. With the cycle from the soil and the pasture, through the barn and the milking parlour to the cheese dairy and the market operation, Sabine Jürß leads the way with great experience and awareness of the effectiveness of her actions against all odds.

In 2023, we honoured the Heggelbach farm community - in particular Claudia and Stephan Ryffel. With their way of working in the dairy and the way they farm, they show how it is possible to be economically profitable without disregarding ideals such as grazing and exclusive hay feeding. Congratulations!

Albert and Silvio Schöpfer's Kleinstein dairy in the foothills of the Lucerne Alps is a window to nine neighbouring farms, where people and animals work together to turn milk and cheese into a valuable landscape and community.

PSSST...

You can recognise each year's winning stand by the shimmering gold foil - as well as the framed prize!