The cheese is shipped as a “wheel”. The cheese is protected by its salty crust and is laminated.
As long as the skin of the wheel is not penetrated you can keep the cheese in a cool place and let it mature. If you want to mature it, do not keep it in the fridge and certainly never freeze a cheese. It is best not to wrap the cheese. It needs to be able to “breath”. To improve the maturing process it is best to flip the cheese every now and then. You may also want to wipe the cheese with a damp cloth now and then to keep it clean.
As soon as you cut the cheese you need to keep it in the fridge (again do not let it freeze). As the protective lamination and salty crust are breached you should wrap the cheese in plastic to keep it from drying out. Before you eat the cheese be sure to remove the lamination. Even though cheese doesn’t spoil easily, once opened, you should aim to consume the cheese within 3 weeks.
Dutch Farmers Cheese contains no preservatives. If you wrap the “wheel” in plastic outside the refrigerator or do not consume the cut cheese quickly enough, it is possible some mold forms on the cheese. This does not spoil the cheese. Just cut off the piece that has formed the mold and the rest of the cheese is fine to consume.
