Switzerland's big cheese

A generations-old family business in Gruyères churns out the town's eponymous dairy offering

Gruyere cheese making
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse))

Ah, the power of Gruyère.

The firm cheese keeps Jacques Murith and his family — sons Pierre and Alexandre, along with wife Elian — busy from beginning of the day to end. Nestled high in the mountains of western Switzerland sits the town of Gruyères, and it is there that the family's cheese-making operation churns out around 200 wheels — weighing as much as 90 pounds each — of Gruyère each year.

While the Muriths' cheese is not exported, you can buy it directly from the cheese makers if you happen upon their home in the northern mountains of Switzerland. Below, images of the fifth and sixth generations of a family in the cheese business, hard at work.

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Sarah Eberspacher

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.