Exactly a month ago we visited Botchenalp with our Adopt-an-Alp winners Mark Sutherland and Rich Cooper. It was a great experience, we just wish the weather had been like in the pictures: Sunshine instead of the rain in July. Dog Joy is enjoying the weather, too. She as well is busy and runs tirelessly on the meadows in the midst of the cows. Xander Amacher still has very busy days. There's a lot

"Alpsegen" (Alp prayer) is as old as transhumance. Every evening the farmers do their recitative or speech song and pray to their patron gods. They use a wooden or tinny milk funnel as a megaphone. Alois "Wisel" Fassbind is no exceptions. On this Saturday his prayer went out into a stunning environment with a rainbow as powerfull as Wisel's words.

"I think from Monday on I take off, the cellar is full!" Of course, cheesemaker Walter Niklaus was joking, he's not going to take days off. But he's accurate that the cellars on the dairy Maran are full, there's hardly any space left. It's time to sell now!

Way into the second half of transhumance the cellars on the Alp are filled close to capacity. Which means a lot of work in the cellar. On Alp Imbrig it's cheese all around, and Ziger (Sérac) of course. The square wheels are the award-winning Imbrig Raclette. Lena enjoys the days on the Alp, too. You got to start early if you want to become a farm woman.

If you get the Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP Alp Gantrischli, don't by shocked: It is still the one from Steiners Hohberg, however, the co-op made the decision to change the name. And there's a good reason behind it. Since 8 farmers bring their Alp milk to the dairy it made sense to change to "Gantrischli" since this is the name of the region whereas Steiners Hohberg was only the Alp where the dairy i

On Monday, the Streiff family with their 5 kids finally could move to the Oberstafel, the highest meadows on Alp Braunwald. It's later than usual due to the weather conditions: Winter had returned in spots during spring. From the Oberstafel you have a great view over the village of Braunwald with its scattered settlements. And you see literally the very end of the Glarus valley. For the animals it

It's a tradition like transhumance: Every year, there's an Alpfestival on Alp Obern Galm. A lot of people attend, and there's food, beer, and wine. One of the highlights is the animal show where the judges crown the most beautiful and the most productive cow. Just look at the winners.

What a day on Musenalp! Sepp and Andrea Herger celebrated two "babies". They produced their very first white mold soft cheese, and they got the proof that Andrea is pregnant. They expect their first child at year's end. Here is Andrea's text (in German, of course).

Once again, the weather did not cooperate: low-hanging clouds covered the Säntis peak, and without a clear sky there was no reason to take the cable car to the top. Hence we started the day with the visit to the showcase dairy Schwägalp. First, we met Marco Bolt, the president of the Alpkäse-Committee, who had agreed to join us for the last day of the trip. Werner Näf, the director of the dairy,

We were really looking forward to this day: Visiting Charetalp, the Betschart family, with their goats and - yes - a 1000 sheep. However, the day did not start well. After an excellent breakfast at Hotel Engel in Emmetten, we drove to Bisisthal, or better, we tried to. Because of the heavy rainfall over weeks, the situation in Switzerland was dire. Most lakes flooded their shores, mud- and rocksli