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Karstwater — rain falling on limestone,
and everything that follows from it.

05

Fruitières

No single farm had enough milk in a day for one great wheel, so the milk was pooled and the cheese was made in common. The vat, the wheel, the cellar — and the arithmetic underneath it all.

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Copper milk churns sit in salt-filled basins on a tiled dairy workbench
After the water · the vat

Cheese made in common

A single farm could not produce enough milk in a day for one large wheel, so milk was pooled and the cheese was made and owned collectively.

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Everything in Fruitières

  • 5.1

    Cheese made in common

    A single farm could not produce enough milk in a day for one large wheel, so milk was pooled and the cheese was made and owned collectively.

    After the water · the vat
  • 5.2

    The copper vat

    Why the metal matters, and the shape that lets one person work it.

    After the water · the vat
  • 5.3

    The wheel and the cellar

    Size as a storage strategy: a big wheel keeps because of its own mass.

    After the water · the cellar
  • 5.4

    Turning and rubbing

    Months of handling in a cold cellar, and the rind it builds.

    After the water · the cellar
Rows of cheese wheels aging on wooden shelves in a stone cellar tunnel
Wheels ranked in the cold: mass is a storage strategy, and the cellar does the rest.

Elsewhere in the survey