Narrator: Patience and dexterity are the keys
to turning these cheese curds into string cheese.
- And there you have it, string cheese.
Narrator: The South African cheesery Noah's Cheese
makes this knotted mozzarella using only local ingredients
from nearby farms.
The pandemic has heightened concern over long supply chains,
and as a result,
the company's system is attracting new customers.
- We'll probably globally see a move away
from these highly centralized, big corporate food providers.
The cost in terms of the environment,
the risk, when something like a disaster like this happen,
I think is too high.
Narrator: Marietjie Crowther
founded Noah's Cheese in 2012
after her father gifted her a dairy cow.
She now runs the brand with her husband, Danie.
Since 2017, they've used only local resources
in their production process.
When the pandemic hit, Noah's Cheese lost two-thirds
of its business overnight.
They scaled down production and furloughed staff,
but were able to stay in business,
thanks to reliance on the "Slow Food" movement.
Today, they're struggling to keep up with demand.
- We believe that cheesemaking is not just
about making cheese — it's also an art.
We try to give people something that doesn't exist
in other places, and it proved to be popular.
Narrator: The Slow Food movement started
with an Italian organization
founded in the 1980s to protect local food traditions
that were at risk of disappearing
with the rise of fast food.
It promotes short supply chains,
locally sourced ingredients,
and quality over quantity and speed.
Noah's Cheese is part of the movement
attracting millions of people across the world.
The cheesery runs entirely on solar energy
and local raw materials.
The wood they use to smoke mozzarella
comes from a nearby apple farm.
- The message is eat what is in season,
know where your food is coming from,
and support the farmer or the producer directly
where you can.
Narrator: Danie and Marietjie felt
the impact of the pandemic.
It curtailed what's normally their busiest season.
They adapted by scaling down production of hard cheeses,
which take around nine months to turn a profit,
leaning into these soft string cheeses,
and opening up an online store.
- We can ship to anywhere in the country.
I think that's a route that everybody's taking.
You have to adapt, adapt or die.
Narrator: Thanks to the new spike in demand,
hard cheese production will resume in the fall,
but Danie will always have fun walking through
the right way to eat one of their soft knots.
- Then it folds over, there's the bottom of the knot.
So if you pull it open, the knot comes loose.
Cut the bottom, you cut the top.
That's a fun cheese.