When we arrived at the lu’Mazăre farm, we were welcomed warmly by the friendly couple Mazăre Gheorge and Ana. Having showed us a duck pond where there was watermill in the past, we were invited inside their kitchen. Both being very hospitable and agreeable, we were served coffee, tea, bread, smoked cheese, cheese with cumin, cold cuts, cakes, donkey milk and palinka.
Besides, their daughter-in-law and her son were also present, while her husband were working as an administrator for a company. He also does all the paperwork for the farm and when Mazăre Gheorge and Ana retires, he will go on running the farm.
They have a cattle farm, but they also have donkeys, sheep, pigs and various kinds of poultry (chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, etc.) They sell both cow and donkey milk to a local milk processing company, but they also make all kinds of milk products.
The farm was in a valley, and it was surrounded by rolling hills covered by forests. Mr Mazăre had always tried to expand the area of the farm, while his neighbours instead spent money on expanding their houses.
When we went outside, we could see some ducks and geese wandering around the farm. Next, Mr Mazăre made a young donkey rise so that his wife could feed him cereals. Next, we entered the barn where the pigs were residing in two enclosures, a group of young pigs in one of them and a sow with her piglets in the other one. The sow was let out of the barn and allowed to walk of the meadows next to the farm. We walked around the meadows where we could see some grazing cows and sheep. At the same time, we could hear a donkey braying.
The owners led us to the donkey which was the mother of the young donkey which Ana had fed. Now, she started milking the donkey by hand. She put a bucket with cereals on the ground and the donkey could eat while she was being milked. In fact, it seemed like it didn’t affect her at all. She just accepted what was happening to her.
We could see some geese and ducks enter a pond where they were swimming. Unfortunately, they left the pond when we were approaching.
We were told that the dairies pay a higher price for donkey milk than cow milk, and the cows are milked by machine.
In addition to the farm in the valley, Mr Mazăre had bought meadows on the hills surrounding the farm. We went by car to a farm; next we walked on meadows from which we could see his cows on other meadows. Mr Mazăre has brought an aggregate and a milking machine up to the cows and he or his wife are milking them by machine where they are.
Summer 2024 was hot and dry, and they also had to bring feed and water to the cows. There are sources on the hills, but they were mostly dry during the summer. Anyway, he led us to a spring from which fresh water was flowing.
To prevent bears from hurting the cows, they are surrounded by electric fences.
When Mr Mazăre was a boy, he had to look after the cows, walking up the hills to the cows. Besides, people were living on the hills to avoid flooding, but they gradually moved down to the valley.
