The mountain pasture season

Cheese-making is an integral part of the summer-grazing season, or alpage (May-October). Indeed, it takes a wide skillset to be a mountain dairy farmer. La saison d’alpage a été retenue par la Confédération comme l’une des traditions vivantes devant figurer prochainement dans le patrimoine culturel immatériel de l’UNESCO, aux côtés notamment de la Fête des vignerons ou du Carnaval de Bâle. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, almost all Swiss cheese was made on mountain farms, during the 20 weeks from May to late September. The sound of clanging cowbells has long filled the air in early summer during the Poya (ascent of the dairy herds to the mountain pastures), then again in autumn during the Rindyà (return to lowland pastures).