The Milk Book on the Exhibition

Table of Contents Page Up to the Alps: cattle drive in the Alpstein region 4 Switzerland and Swiss cheese 6 Butter = long-life milk 7 A hard life scavenging for hay 9 Alpine farmers as objects of study 10 Life in the Alps: idyll or drudgery? 12 Everyday life on the move 14 Selling Switzerland’s prime export product 15 The land of the bejewelled cows 16 The cow in advertising 17 Not just a pet, but a working animal 19 Milk on the move 21 The lowland dairy farmers 23 Precious manure 24 No calves, no milk 25 Carved treasures 26 Butter as an art form 27 From the shed to the parlour 28 Letting nothing go to waste 30 Off to the butcher 31 The breeder’s pride 32 3 Up to the Alps: cattle drive in the Alpstein region 01 Bells Only the three lead cows may wear these three large bells on the way up to the Alpine pastures. The straps are richly decorated and the bells are precisely tuned to one another. When the slope is steep, the herdsmen remove the bells as they are too heavy for even the strongest lead cow to wear for a long time. Once arrived on the pasture, the herdsmen’s bells are hung under the porch. They were be too heavy and precious to be used on the Alpine meadows. 02 Milking pail These buckets with decorated bottoms are treasures that are only used on the journey up to the Alpine pastures. The herdsmen carry these milk pails on their shoulders so that the elaborately painted bottoms are clearly visible. When they reach the alp, the base is removed to re- veal an unpainted version beneath, suitable for daily use. 03 Pipe and tobacco pouch A pipe (“Lindauerli”) and a tobacco pouch (“Baksäckel”) number among the Appenzell herdsman’s possessions. Both items are typically adorned with cow motifs. The little metal-coated pipe with a lid found its way to the Appenzell region via the market in Lindau on Lake Con- stance – hence the name “Lindauerli”. Tobacco has been consumed in Switzerland since the seventeenth century and was even cultivated in some places, too. 4 04 Herdsman’s festive costume On special occasions, such as the cattle drive up to the summer pastures, the herdsmen’s ball, or cattle shows, the Appenzell herdsmen wear their traditional costumes, which feature cows as a decorative motif in many of the details. The most striking part of the costume are the yellow, calf-length leather trousers and white knee socks. Unlike the herdsmen, the farmers sport a costume with long, brown trousers. Another particular feature is the “Ohreschuefle” worn in the right ear, an earring in the form of a cream skimmer. In terms of appearance, the herdsman’s costume has remained almost unchanged for centuries. One of the reasons for this is the attention from foreign guests, who since the nineteenth century have enjoyed coming to the Appenzell region for convalescence therapies. 05 Choreographing a journey to the Alpine pastures In the area around Säntis, there is a clear order for driving the animals up the mountain. The goats go first with the young herdsmen, followed by the lead herdsmen in yellow knee breeches with the milking pail across his shoulder. Then come the “Schellenkühe” – the three lead cows wearing bells – and another herdsman. The rest of the herd walk behind, flanked by the farmers in brown trousers. The mountain dog known as the Appenzell cattle dog is also essential for the retinue. Right at the back comes the “Lediwagen”, a transport wagon loaded with upturned milk churns and milking pails. This configuration can also be seen in the decorative tableau created by Johannes Müller. Decorative tableau (“Sennenstreifen”) created by Johannes Müller around 1865: reproduction, original painting displayed in the Appenzeller Folklore-Museum, Stein AR. 5 Switzerland and Swiss cheese The “Folle” 06 is a kind of drip funnel used to strain the fresh milk and filter out any particles of dirt. Fir twigs or plant fibres were placed in the funnel to act as a filter. A cheese curd stirrer 07 is a device for keeping the curds in suspension. Simple wooden models or models with a wire mesh were very common. The curdled milk is cut with a wooden spatula or a slicer 08. This job is very time-consuming with the spatula but can be shortened by using a slicer with metal wires known as a harp. A cheese mould 09 is an adjustable wooden ring into which the cheese mass is pressed. The curds are gathered with a cloth, put in the mould and pressed. This gives the cheese wheel its round form. An especially large mould 10 was used to produce Emmental cheese. The huge size of these wheels derives from the fact that they were often exported and the tolls were calculated per piece and not according to weight. The Alpine farmers would put the soft cheese in “Vätterli” 11 to form small cheese wheels called “Mutschli”. The wooden cheese moulds have holes in the bottom to let out the whey. The Ziger skimmer 12 is used after the actual curdling. The left-over whey is acidified to separate it a second time. The whey protein, which clumps together in flakes, is scooped off with the perforated skimmer – the fresh Ziger whey cheese is now ready. 6 Butter = long-life milk 13 Butter and cheese in competition Butter was a precious commodity for city dwellers. The existence of a thriving market for it outside Switzerland also regularly led to conflicts – particularly when the farmers took their butter abroad instead of deliv- ering it to the next town. The municipal authorities sought to guarantee the supply by introducing regulations and export restrictions. Full-fat cheesemaking fuelled the conflict, for it required the whole of the milk and so no cream was left over. In the nineteenth century, as more and more farmers in the Midlands converted to animal husbandry, there was a surplus of milk and for a while butter shortages were no longer an issue. Around 1900 the butter problem reared its head again because the price of cheese had risen and more and more dairies started to appear down in the valleys. Almost all the country’s milk was made into cheese and as a result cheap butter was imported from abroad. The fresh milk is kept in flat tubs called “Gebsen” 14 for one or two days. Because milk fat is lighter than the other components it rises to the surface and forms a layer of cream. For a long time the tubs were made of wood or ceramic but later they were also mass -produced out of metal. A paddle-shaped skimmer 15 was used to draw off the layer of cream, leaving behind the skimmed milk. Centrifuges 16 were increasingly used after 1870 for skimming the milk much quicker. The milk is spun like in a washing machine: the cen- trifuge hurls the heavy skimmed milk against the wall of the drum where it drains off, while the lighter cream collects in the centre. 7 A range of implements made of wood, ceramic, metal or glass were used to beat cream into butter. In the slender, upright plunger churns 17 a stirrer moves the cream up and down. With paddle or barrel churns 18 either the whole barrel is set in motion with a crank or a structure like a water wheel rotates inside the container. The turning motion beats the cream into butter. For he beating of butter at home, there were smaller agitator jars 19, consisting of a glass jar with a stirrer. This functioned like a modern hand blender – but without electricity. 8 A hard life scavenging for hay 20 Pegs for hay nets The farmers wrapped the dried hay in nets. To tie up the bundles, they first inserted pointed pegs in the ground to tension the net. When it was full, the net would be fastened with the wooden clasps. The farmers carried the bundles of hay, each weighing between 50 and 80 kilo- grams, on their backs to the nearest animal pen or rolled them along on wooden runners. In the mid-nineteenth century, cables began transporting the hay down the mountain – initially as temporarily installed hemp ropes, and later as permanent cableways made of wire. Many of the pegs were marked by their owners to determine whose hay was in the bundle. 21 A horn for the whetstone Grass can only be properly cut with a finely honed scythe. Swiss mountain farmers known as “Wildheuer” often carried a cow horn on their belt to store a whetstone. This way they could sharpen their scythes wherever they were working. 9 22 Alpine farmers as objects of study 2 1 4 3 5 1 Milking stool: for sitting on while milking 2 Milking pail: bucket for the freshly collected milk 3 Milk tub: for transporting the milk to the hut 4 “Folle”: drip funnel for straining the milk 5 Cheese kettle: vessel for heating the milk 6 Ziger skimmer for scooping the flakes of soft cheese from the whey 7 Cheese stirrer for cutting up the curdled cheese mass 8 Bowl with handle for scooping off the cheese milk 9 Flat tub for creaming off the milk 10 Bowl (“Schweid-Napf”): for drawing the floating white milk fat from the cheese kettle 11 Acid barrel: container for storing the acid for producing Ziger whey cheese 12 Cheese mould: mould for the fresh soft cheese 13 Paddle churn: implement used for making butter 10 6 8 10 7 9 11 12 13 “On the whole the herdsman is an honest, decent man, cast in the traditional mould of upstanding Swiss simplicity, regarding both his life and his behaviour; clad in a rough yet respectable smock; shod in wooden clogs, tied across his bare feet with two leather straps.

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