A Sunday with friends in the dairy

In each dairy respecting itself, producing raw milk cheese , using milk only from their  own animals, there is always a dairy-woman or a dairyman in the mood to experience, test, and to try to understand a living material that changes from day to day.

The world, that of the raw milk cheese, is amazing,  not easy to explain: it’s about the care and love  for the animals, about attachment to the soil….  And then the clot, the form, the maturing of the creations: all of it appearently very technical but never without some personal and individual touch. Rawmilk is full of bewitching charm,  of something that sometimes threatens you, but then, inevitably, and with the necessary commitment, turns back into  the full domain of the cheese maker.

Be aware, we are talking about a reality where you woun’t find any feed additives in the barn; neither artificial ferments or coagulants in the dairy. Realities that in the end are quite few in our area, hence word of mouth is powerful and fast.

That’s the way it happened, a  Sunday morning in February at Fattoria Ma’ Falda, five dairymen, a couple of assistant cheesemakers, two technicians and our dairy-woman met to experiment, excange and explain to each other. And inevitably learn. Nothing is better than to experience a couple of recipes together. To understand a couple of things about the cutting of the curd,  the development of mold inside the cheese, proteolysis, lipolysis.

We didn’t have any milk at that point (our goats were giving birth) but some colleagues brought with them wo different sheeps milk (from Sarda and Lacon breeds), both of extensive husbandry.

“Even though this winter has been very mild” – we said – “with a good spring pasture milk, nice and fat, the result would have been even better.” But anyhow we worked on technique and technology and the collaboration became more than useful, for everyone.

The one coming here to teach  the production of sheep mozzarella, was really happy. Before this day no one mastered this one, no we’re able all of us! The result? Definitly more than good, better than we expected. The blue cheese  was opened a few days ago, once it reached maturity. And the outcome exceeds our expectations. For us it is the prelude to a new product: soon some Sardinian sheep will arrive in our stable. But that’s another story, and I tell it later.

Stay tuned, you will see things happening, and you will hopefully taste some delicious new-comers. True words of our dairy-woman, Åste!