Craftsmanship from the Achterhoek

Handmade butter and stones
The starting point for this route is in Borculo, where you can park your car in a parking lot. From here you cycle in the direction of Neede. Along the way you will pass one of FrieslandCampina's 35 production locations. There used to be a butter factory in this building, but now milk is processed into milk powder. A little further on you cycle over the Needse mountain into the town of Neede. Between 1825 and 1954, sand and clay were extracted here to bake bricks and roof tiles. Now you will find quarries many meters deep.

The origin of Grolsch
About halfway along the route you cycle through Groenlo. The first Grolsch beer was brewed here in 1615. The Grolsch beer brewery originated from one of the many home breweries that were located in Groenlo in the 17th century. Would you like to know more about the history of Grolsch beer? Then the Brouwerij De Klok museum is highly recommended. From Groenlo you cycle back to Borculo.

Artisan butter, cheese and milk
There were many dairy factories in the Achterhoek in the early days. These factories were often run jointly by a few farmers. This eventually led to cooperative cheese, butter and dairy factories. Until the end of the 19th century, farmers still made all these products themselves on their farms, but this was very time-consuming. For example, milk had to sour for three days before you could start producing butter. The fat from the milk had to be churned by hand and that was very hard work. The arrival of the steam dairy put an end to the heavy work, because from now on the work was done with steam power.