Flemish cheese to be blasted into space
’t Groendal, a farm in Rumbeke in West Flanders Province, has received a rather special order. The order comes from the Shannon Walker, an American astronaut who is at work on the ISS, the International Space Station.
Everybody at the farm is a little surprised by this sudden fame, but also extremely proud. Shannon (pictured below) can’t survive without OG Kristal and Old Farmdale produced by the West Flemish farm and has asked for Scotty to beam some up for her.
“The two cheeses are varieties of the farm’s ‘Brokkeloud Roeselare’, a crumbly and mature cheese, and Oud Roeselare, another mature cheese, marketed in the US” explains Louis-Philippe Deweer of ‘t Groendal.
“It’s great news to hear our cheese will be eaten in space. It’s for things like this that you do it!”
“At first we thought the order might be a joke. Astronauts on the ISS are allowed to draw up a wish list. It featured one of our cheeses. NASA contacted our shop in Houston, where the astronaut is a customer. We dispatched a kilo block. That allowed NASA to carry out safety tests. The cheese certainly won’t be eaten via a tube! We’re dispatching a portion via the Antwerp cheese masters Van Tricht that do our international distribution.”
