Mecca for cheese lovers: every two years, around 60,000 visitors crowd through the flower-decked old town alleys of the community of 7500 people on the edge of the Teutoburg Forest.
At the German Cheese Market, 70 cheese makers from all over Europe present their products, which are made exclusively by hand in small manufactories: Parmesan from Lake Maggiore, raw milk cheese from the Jura or the Nieheim cheese.

The small round of low-fat sour milk curd is still made by hand, just like in the past: The dry, only slightly sour curd is finely ground or beaten - and after maturing for three to five days is made into hand cheese with salt, caraway seeds and water.
In 2010, Nieheim cheese was protected throughout the EU as a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) cheese. And included in the Ark of Taste by the German section of Slow Food.

Cheese tasting in practice is accompanied by theory: the nearby cheese museum shows old cheese kitchens and explains in exhibitions and films how a variety of different tasting cheeses are made from simple milk. Winegrowers and wine merchants from the Moselle, Nahe and Reinhessen regions provide the right drinks at the market.