By Kara
In Bjurholm, Sweden, about 8 hours north of Stockholm, live three female moose. They were domesticated as calves after being abandoned by their mother, and their names are Juna, Halga, and Gullan. Although I've never met them, they are currently my favorite moose in the world.
Why? Because Juna, Halga, and Gullan are cheesemakers! (Kudos also to the farmers behind the operation, Christer and Ulla Johansson. Check out the website for their farm, Elgens Hus, here - bring your Swedish dictionary.)
Moose only lactate 3-5 months out of the year, and these three ladies are the only cows milked at Elgens Hus. What's more, moose are notoriously finicky when it comes to being milked, and even small disturbances can cause temporary "dry-ups." A gentle and thorough milking can take up to 2 hours - at which point, the milker has only made about 1 gallon of progress toward the ultimate goal. This results in a very rare, and thus very expensive product: as of last summer, moose cheese from Elgens Hus was selling for about $420 per pound, and was only available in Sweden. Some claim that this is the most expensive cheese in the world, although other candidates (such as Serbian donkey's milk cheese) have also been proposed.
But it's not all hype: moose milk is high in butterfat, which would lead me to believe it could make a yummy (if gamey) cheese. Relative to cow's milk, moose milk is also higher in aluminum, iron, selenium, and zinc. In liquid form, it is served to Russian sanatorium residents in order to facilitate recovery from long-term illness. Who knows what it could do in the form of a cheddar?
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