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Trevor Warmedahl left commercial cheesemaking to seek out traditional cheeses made by herding communities, including Mongolia’s aaruul and Georgia’s Tushuri guda. His travels, described in a BBC report, document food practices tied to local landscapes and cultural traditions; the report does not announce a new project or provide a complete itinerary.
Trevor Warmedahl, a former commercial cheesemaker from Seattle, has spent years travelling to remote communities to document traditional cheeses and the ways they are made, according to a BBC report published in October 2026. His experiences in Mongolia and Georgia show how cheesemaking can connect local food to herding practices, landscapes and cultural history.
Warmedahl left his Seattle job after questioning his distance from the animals supplying the milk he worked with. In 2019, he travelled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and lived alone in a yurt before joining a herder family on the Zavkhan grassland. He described waking early to milk yaks, helping manage livestock and making aaruul, a sweet-and-sour curd that is dehydrated.
In Mongolia, he observed practices that give dairy a place beyond everyday food. The BBC report says women flicked milk into the air before cheesemaking in a gesture known as a milk libation, and dairy was offered at shrines as a symbol of purity. These details come from Warmedahl’s account of his experiences; they do not establish that customs are identical across the country or all communities.
In Georgia’s Tusheti region, Warmedahl stayed with shepherds making Tushuri guda, a feta-like cheese aged in inside-out sheepskins. He said the shepherds milked sheep by hand using wooden pails. At the end of the season, he walked about 130 kilometres (81 miles) with the shepherds and a flock of 300 sheep as they moved down the valley. His account links the cheese to seasonal migration and a way of life maintained by herding families.
Cheese Tied to Land and Livestock
The report matters because it documents food traditions that rely on particular relationships between people, animals and place. Farmstead cheeses made from a farmer’s own animals can reflect local breeds, grazing conditions and methods passed between generations. When those practices change or disappear, a distinctive food tradition may be lost along with knowledge of the landscape and livestock behind it.
Warmedahl argues that pastoral cheesemaking can offer a flexible way of producing food as communities respond to climate uncertainty and desertification, because herds can graze across different landscapes. That is his view, not an independently tested finding in the report. The article does not compare the environmental impact of pastoral and industrial cheese production, but it draws attention to the ecological and cultural questions behind how cheese is made.
For readers, the reporting also offers a way to approach unfamiliar foods without treating them as curiosities. Warmedahl says that eating what local people eat can open conversations about a community’s history and daily life. His journey suggests that taste is shaped by culture as well as personal preference.
traditional Mongolian aaruul cheese
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From Seattle to Pastoral Camps
Warmedahl’s journey began with a practical question about the source of his milk. As a commercial cheesemaker, he realised he was using milk from animals he had never seen. He quit his job and began moving between volunteer opportunities and remote places where traditional methods remained in use, according to the BBC account.
His time in Mongolia in 2019 became a starting point for seeking out other cheesemaking traditions. In Georgia, he describes ancestral cheeses as “fossil cheeses” that were nearly lost and are now returning amid a wider post-Soviet cultural revival. The report presents this as Warmedahl’s description of the tradition and its revival, rather than as a survey of the Georgian cheese industry.
His travels have also taken him to Norway, where he tried gammelost, a mould-covered cheese with a strong, spicy flavour. He says it was not to his taste, while arguing that appreciation for unfamiliar foods can be learned. The examples in the report are individual encounters, not a complete catalogue of his travels or of traditional cheeses worldwide.
“Cheese is an edible manifestation of a place.”
— Trevor Warmedahl, speaking to the BBC
The Journey’s Full Scope
The BBC report offers selected episodes from Warmedahl’s travels, but it does not provide a complete list of the places he has visited, the cheeses he has documented or the communities he has worked with. It is also unclear from the report how many cheesemaking traditions remain active, how many are at risk, or what evidence supports the claim that heritage livestock diversity is declining at an alarming rate.
The article does not announce a new book, expedition, research project or release date, and it gives no timetable for Warmedahl’s next destination. Claims about the sustainability of pastoral cheesemaking are presented as his perspective; the report does not supply comparative emissions, land-use or production data.
Further Reporting on Traditional Methods
No specific next milestone is identified in the report. Warmedahl’s stated focus is continuing to find and document traditional farmstead cheeses and the people who make them. Any future destinations, publications or preservation projects were not confirmed in the material published by the BBC.
Further reporting could clarify how the communities themselves are maintaining these practices, what economic or environmental pressures they face, and whether local producers see growing interest in their cheeses as support or a new strain. For now, the confirmed development is the publication of a profile drawing attention to Warmedahl’s ongoing work, rather than an announced change in his plans.
Key Questions
Who is Trevor Warmedahl?
Trevor Warmedahl is a former commercial cheesemaker from Seattle who has travelled to document traditional cheesemaking and the communities behind it.
Which cheeses are featured in the report?
The report describes aaruul, a dehydrated curd made in Mongolia; Tushuri guda, a feta-like Georgian cheese aged in sheepskins; and Norway’s mould-covered gammelost.
Why did Warmedahl leave commercial cheesemaking?
He told the BBC that he realised he was using milk from animals he had never seen. He then set out to learn about cheesemaking practices closer to the animals and communities producing the milk.
What is not yet known about his travels?
The report does not give a complete itinerary, quantify how many traditions are at risk or identify Warmedahl’s next destination. It also does not announce a new project or publication.
Source: hn
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