The stall at the Halifax Seaport Farmers' Market where Willem van den Hoek stood for decades to hawk his family's artisanal cheese was conspicuously empty Sunday.

The shelves, normally filled with Gouda, Dragon's Breath blue cheese and other products made at his family farm in Economy, N.S., were barren. 

All that remained were two bouquets of flowers laid by mourners, a printout of a Facebook post announcing his death, and a sympathy card with the message: "The 'Cheeseman' will live on in our he…