Nikki Reed

Nikki Reed Instagram – A 300 year old farmhouse with the same traditional practices for cheese making that one might have seen a century ago. Not much has changed, and that type of preserved integrity is just one of the things that makes this farm so special. Mr and Mrs Hefti have been married for 37 years, and for their entire shared life they have made cheese here together. We rode 15 minutes up the mountain to their farm on ATV’s, stopping occasionally to take it all in. This is real life. This is how people live, and it’s magic. Their happy cows wandered the hillside free grazing with their babies, coming up to us occasionally to say hello. A far cry from what we see back home with factory farming. I glanced around at the mamas and babies munching on grass outside their window as Mr and Mrs Hefti moved through this dance they have done thousands of times together around a giant vat of almost ready cheese, and I couldn’t help but think about the food system I grew up with, and how disconnected so many of us are. For six months out of the year the Hefti family makes cheese at their farm, and for the rest of the year when it is snows they hand transport their milk to the local village and make it there. That is how much it means to them. It is personal, the way it should be. Regardless of how one chooses to eat, it is essential to maintain an understanding of where food comes from, and this is the perfect example of that. For so many of us, that connection simply doesn’t exist as we live in a world where food is presented in plastic wrap and bright labels, with no story. This cheese has a story. Thank you for inviting us to come see your beautiful home, and thank you for allowing me to document this moment with my camera. It evoked so much emotion for me, and opened my eyes to more than I can fit on this page. Also, the last photo makes me teary eyed every time I look at it…Switzerland you have my heart. | Posted on 27/Jun/2024 20:52:25