Sylvan Star Cheese

Award winning Alberta cheese!

  • Location

    Red Deer County, AB

  • Website

  • People

    Jan Schalkwijk , Janneke Schalkwijk

  • Distance

    136 km Away

       Sylvan Star Cheese is made by Jan Schalkwijk, and his wife Janneke. Making really good cheese runs in the Schalwijk family - Jan's mother won the award for #1 Gouda in the Netherlands in 1952. Jan has certainly followed in her footsteps. The Scalkwijk family immigrated to Canada in 1995, and started a modest dairy farm. Jan, who'd been a cheesemaker in the Netherlands for 30 years, had a hard time finding good cheese in Canada, and so set to work on creating his own. Today, Sylvan Star Cheese has won numerous awards: their Gouda has been ranked #1 multiple times in Canada, and the extra-aged "Grizzly Gouda" is currently ranked #4 in the world. 

       Sylvan Star Cheese is a family operation through and through. Jan and Janneke's son, Jeroen, raises the 240 holsteins that provide the milk for the cheese. Then, Jan and Janneke craft an anti-biotic free, no-additives cheese that is also lactose free!

       Next time you're in the store, pick up some of Sylvan Star's Gouda; you won't be disappointed!