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Tag: goats

  • Lega farmhouse dairy and bakery

    Picture of pizza crusts
    Pizza crusts

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    While doing a course on chair-making at Raulandsakademiet, the director told us that we could buy various farm products like cheese and pizza crusts at the reception. Since I want to support local agriculture, I bought some cheese and kling before I left. Having come back some days later in order to go to a bird-watching course, I decided to contact the producer. Since she accepted my inquiry, I took some time off the course to do an interview instead.

    Having arrived, I entered a small building and went upstairs where Gro Hommo and a female worker were making pizza crusts.

    Gro picked the dough from a kneader and put it on a bench. She divided up the dough in small parts, weighed it, applied flour to the dough and kneaded it, forming a bun.

    Kneading the dough

    Next, the worker, who was from Ukraine, put the “buns” on a dough roller, which turned them flat. Then, Gro lifted them up one by one by means of a small wooden ruler and laid it on a workbench where she flattened both sides by means of a roller pin.

    Rolling the dough

    Next, she applied salt and sprayed water on the dough.

    Applying salt to the dough and spraying it with water

    Finally, when the dough was ready, she put it on a hot electrical griddle and turned it upside down when it had been baked. Then, she baked the other side and put the finished pizza crust on another bench.

    Turning the pizza crust upside down

    She had 5 griddles on which she could put the finished dough and all of them were quite hot and I had to be careful to avoid being burnt. This was really hard work in a warm room.

    I asked Gro if they were growing wheat at the farm, but she told me it wasn’t possible since it was located at about 700 metres above sea level, making it too cold. Instead, she was using wheat flour from Kvelde flour mill. This made it possible to sell the bakery products with a mark of excellence: Spesialitet – unik smak . In addition, she used olive oil from Uliveti Castel San Martino. Incidentally, a man from Rauland was importing olive oil from that farm in Italy.

    In fact, this way of making pizza crusts is Gro’s idea, but she has never applied for any kind of protection like a patent because it’s expensive and time-limited.

    The pizza crusts would be sold to restaurants, but they are also sold in various shops in south-east Norway.

    Gro and her husband bought the farm about 40 years ago. While he was working outside the farm, she was tending goats because they were manageable for one person. The milk from the goats were used to make cheese. Gradually, she has expanded the farm and now there are about 250 goats and some tens of kids.

    Gro told me that about half the goats were on a mountain farm, while the kids, the young and the old goats were back home at the farm.

    Artificial insemination is used at different times of the year such that some of the goats produce milk all year, making it possible to make cheese all year too.

    Gro also showed me the farmhouse dairy where brown goat cheese was being made. Besides, she showed me two storerooms for storing cheese, being located next to the dairy.

    I asked her about the simple sign on the road passing the farm: Raundalen, the place where the farm is located. In fact, she didn’t want lots of tourists to arrive at the farm, but she had a farmhouse shop where those in the know could buy the farm’s products.

    Next, we went back to the bakery since there were more pizza crusts to make. Some time later, a young man entered the bakery and Gro told me that he was the husband of the woman with whom she was working. Getting workers from Norway is difficult and this was the reason for having workers from Ukraine. Gro asked me if I wanted to see the goats since he was tending them and I accepted, of course.

    Wearing clothes and boots from the farm, I was allowed to enter the barn. Having entered, I could see the Ukrainian man let the goats enter a part of the barn, which was used for milking. Instead, they were fed concentrated feeds and when they were finished, they were allowed to go outside again.

    Goats waiting to be fed

    Next, it was time to feed the kids. First, he opened a lid, letting the kids have access to a trough where he poured raw milk such that they could drink it.

    Feeding the kids with goat's milk

    Instead, the small kids were allowed to drink from a small cup filled with raw milk. Finally, the smallest kids were lifted and held up while drinking from the cup. The worker told me that he had to treat them with care because they could get diarhorea if they eat too much.

    Hand-feeding a kid with milk

    Next, he let the goats on the hill through two gates to the meadow below the house where they could enter the barn.

    The goats are grazing and ruminating

    The goats are going to be milked

    He told me that they prefer to stay inside at night even though they are allowed to go outside if they want. Anyway, the goats can go outside at daytime all year and the cold winters lead to that they get quite shaggy.

    This farm is selling kid meat from male kids. Instead, most male kids are just finished off at birth and the meat is not eaten.

    When I was about to leave, I could hear the sound of the rolling pin and the dough roller from the bakery. Obviously, being a farmer requires lots of hard work.

    The last day at Raulandsakademiet, we were served kid meat from Lega farm. I can honestly say that it was delicious and the meat was the most tender I’ve ever tasted.

    Both the farmhouse dairy and the bakery will move to Rauland because the present premises are too small. Economic support from Innovation Norway makes this possible.

    As told in various radio programmes, goat and kid are separated soon after birth, most of the goat milk is sold to Tine, goats had another diet in bygone times, which added a very strong taste to the goat cheese, while it’s milder now, the goats are milked twice daily and they really appreciate being caressed after milking, Gro brings the goats she likes best to an annual outdoor market called Dyrskun in Seljord, Gro and her family use kid meat for sausages, pinnekjøtt  and fårikål, Gro was running the farm on her own for many years, but now her son is running the farm.

    This farm makes the following products:
    brown goat cheese
    white goat cheese called Stavsfjell
    flatbread  two of them are made from flour from Kvelde mill and one of them is made from whey and another one is made from mash instead of flour.
    pizza crust
    prim is a spreadable goat cheese with added sugar
    cow cheese called Heimros  made from cow milk from the neighbouring farm.
    a cheese called knubbost  corresponding to feta cheese
    a blue cheese  called Vehus
    cream cheese
    crispbread which is called knekkebrød
    kling which is a local word for lefse
    kid meat

    On request, Lega can make yogurt, ice cream, sour cream and butter.

    Last but not least, Lega is placed in a beautiful part of Telemark and it’s really worth going there.

  • Trifolium Kajo farm – part II

    Goats ,which have been milked, are leaving the milking machines
    Goats ,which have been milked, are leaving the milking machines

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    We arrived at about 6 in the morning in pitch darkness at this farm. Somehow we met Jonas, who we followed into the barn where he fed the kids, while a big male was in a separate place. Next, we entered the dairy where a young local man was milking the goats.

    The goats moved up a short ramp where they could only turn left to the milking machines. Each goat found its place and started eating fodder. Next, a metal bar was lowered over the necks of all of them. The worker attached pumping devices to the udders and started the milking machine. After some time, the oldest goat at 10 years old, was trampling to show that she didn’t have any more milk.

    Milking a goat

    The goats are eating while being milked

    When the udders of the goats were empty, some transparent plastic containers through which the milk was passing also turned empty. Then, the worker removed the pumping devices and hung them up on a railing. Then, he opened a gate such that the goats could walk down another ramp, next he closed a door such that they couldn’t return. The same procedure was redone until all the goats had been milked.

    After he had finished the milking, he emptied the remaining milk in a hose into a container with the rest of the milk. Next, he rinsed all the equipment and carried the container to the dairy. There, Jonas poured the milk into a stainless steel container, turned on heat and waited till it reached about 40°C. Next, he added liquid mould, rennet and a liquid which increased yield. That is, it turned more milk into cheese. Thereafter, we went for breakfast.

    The companies, which are producing milking machines, didn’t want to give Jonas a quote. One company had a subsidiary in Bucharest and they sent him a quote, but they didn’t want to come here. In the end, he connected all mains electricity and plumbing himself to the dairy. Finally, the company was willing to send two technicians to his place and assemble the milking machinery.

    The ditch with cables we saw last time had been refilled and a building had been set up where the goats were milked by means of machines.

    He brought goats from Belgium, but it was very difficult to get them registered by the local vets, although inspecting goats is easier than cows. In the end, he had to bring the vets to his place and bring them back again when they were finished.

    He has 14 milking goats and 8 small ones, which were born this year. In addition, he had slaughtered 2 male goats. He thinks 24 goats would be enough since the milking machine can accommodate 12 goats only.

    Jonas told us that the goats stop producing milk in winter and they start producing milk again about 1 March. He’s using this period to work as a freelance engineer on ships, being well paid and saving money for the rest of the year.

    He spent the summer haymaking, doing manual mowing only and he took part in all stages of it because buying hay isn’t an option.

    The hillsides above the farm have lots of flowers and they smell like an organic, herbal tea shop. This is good for the goats because they are what they eat and, of course, for the cheese. He mowed the grass on the hills above the house, put it on tarpaulins and pulled it down to the house, making haystacks, else he would have to hire a horse, driver and cart and freight it here.

    A view from the farm

    Several farmers are mowing grass to receive subsidies although they have no animals and they throw away the grass.

    Before it was easy to mow someone’s land where he left 2/3 to the owner and took 1/3 himself, but not any more.

    Some owners come to him and ask him to mow the land and pay him for the work, but he needs workers. It’s simply too much work for one person. Since fewer people work the land, lots of hay is not cut any more.

    Many people between 20 and 50 work abroad, doing work, which Western Europeans don’t want. This means that Jonas has problems getting workers to help him.

    Some local people earn a lot of money in Western Europe, then come back and spend it, but they don’t want to work here.

    When Jonas and his wife Katalin first came to Mircurea Ciuc, he looked for an engineering job, but none was available. Since he had always liked goats, he decided to be a goat farmer instead. First, he had to ask his neighbours within a radius of 100 m if they would accept that he started a goat farm and all of them accepted, but only one could sign his name. Jonas had to sign for the rest.

    However, he can’t get a subsidy if the land is not registered. That is, he needs to prove that he’s the owner of the land. The land around Mircurea Ciuc was registered during the communist period, but the Gyimes valley was ignored.

    As described here, lots of land was divided among family members into small plots before the communist period.

    Jonas told us the following regarding registering of land:
    ⦁ When a surveyor appears in a village, he is often surrounded by those who are most greedy.
    ⦁ Some people claim they own land they don’t own when the surveyor appears. Many people are illiterate and are easy to fool.
    ⦁ A quick survey method had to be abandoned because so many “smart” people were claiming land from their neighbours. In addition, if one sibling stayed at home and the other ones were away, he could claim all the land as his.
    ⦁ People who work at the land registry in Bucharest work very slowly regarding registering land in the Hungarian-speaking part of the country.
    ⦁ Lots of land has been registered in the Romanian-speaking part.
    ⦁ The Romanian government was imposed by the EU to register all land within 2018, but many parts of the Hungarian-speaking land are still not registered. The Romanian government wants to register uninhabited land in order to increase quickly the amount of registered land, but it won’t help people where they live. Unfortunately, registering land where people live is more time-consuming.
    ⦁ Jonas and 5-6 other farmers have formed an association to speed up registering of their land.

    After breakfast, we went back to the dairy where a young local woman was cleaning and working as an assistant for Jonas. He transferred the curds to porous plastic buckets by opening a valve at the base of the stainless steel container and letting the contents flow out. Next, he laid the buckets on a metal table with a hole through which the whey could escape.

    Pouring curd into a porous plastic bucket

    He added dried nettle to the curds in the two porous buckets and mixed it thoroughly with his hands. Next, he added peppers to two other porous buckets and mixed it with the curds again.

    Adding dried nettle to the curd

    Mixing the curd with the dried nettle

    After he had mixed the curds with dried herbs, he added more curd and mixed everything again. Thereafter, he put on lids on all the buckets and put pressure on them. Later, he would release the pressure and turn the buckets upside down. Next, he would lay the cheeses in salt water. The day after, he would put them in a cool room for maturing.

    Compressing the curd to press out the whey

    While Jonas was making cheese, the young woman was making ricotta. When he had removed all the curds from the stainless steel container, he emptied the remaining whey into a kettle. By heating it, white flakes of curd started appearing on the surface of the whey after some time. When there was enough curd on the surface, she used a sieve with a handle to lift it up and put it in a perforated plastic basket, letting the remaining whey flow out and the ricotta remain.

    Lifting up curd from whey which is being heated to about 40C

    Letting the curd fall onto a porous cloth through which the whey will flow

    When she wasn’t making cheese or ricotta, she was cleaning and after both making cheese and ricotta was finished, she cleaned everything, which had been used.

    As regards making soft cheese, Jonas told us that some whey should stay in the curd, the cheese should be laid on a metal grid, it should be turned upside down twice daily. White mould should start appearing on the surface of the cheese after 2-3 days. If not, it is probably not suitable for human consumption.

    One of his cheeses was full of small holes resembling somewhat a Swiss cheese. I asked him why it looked like that and he said that it was something the goats were eating.

    Jonas told us that demand is larger than supply. He delivers his cheeses to a vegetarian restaurant in Mircurea Ciuc and to a burger place in the same town.

    According to Jonas, city people think cow farmers are better than goat farmers.

    He told us that EU funds are much easier to get for big farms, but very difficult for small ones because there is a lot of paperwork, which has to be filled out. Big farms can pay someone to do it, but it’s not possible for small ones.

    One day, inspectors, who were extremely meticulous, came to him without warning, but they couldn’t find anything apart from some paperwork, which had to be finished within a certain time.

    They asked him the usual question: where does the water come from? From the hills above the farm. He had to provide a water sample, a milk sample, a bottle sample and a cheese sample to them. Everything was analysed and found to be ok. In the end, he asked them why they did it and they gave him a white lie. He said he didn’t believe them and finally they admitted that envious people in the village had sent them. He almost gave up the farm after the inspection. Fortunately, he’s still raising goats and making goat’s cheese.

    The local high school wants to send pupils to local companies for practise because they are tired of reading and sitting in a classroom. Only Trifolium Kajo, the ski slope and the dairy can employ young people, though.

    Jonas had two adolescents here and he tried to teach them about his farm, asking them questions about the dairy to test if they had learnt their lessons. He also let them drive a small tractor.

    There should be a cheese conference in Bucharest the week after our visit. While there, he would present his problems in public.

    His cheeses are not bio-certified products, but they are good enough. There is too much paperwork to get them certified as organic products.

    Jonas and Katalin accept and accommodate volunteers from WWOOF Romania as described here.

    A wwoofer from Belgium was present and a couple from Australia would arrive later. Now, he needs help with building work, before he needed help for mowing.

    He also said that he had bought a house not far away from the farm. He wanted to rent it out and he had hired a carpenter to refurbish it. Unfortunately, only one German family had staid there this summer.

    The house is on registered land and it has space for 9 people. He had kept an old apple tree near the house although the carpenter wanted to cut it because he said it was in the way when he was working. He showed us the house too and it looked very modern inside.

    Surprisingly, he was refurbishing the barn himself as if he hadn’t enough to do before.

    For those who want peace and quiet, lovely scenery and good hiking terrain, it should be an excellent choice.

    Last but not least, he always wore a hat during our last visit, while this time he showed us what was remaining of his unruly hair!

  • Tupei farm and guesthouse

    tupei_w500

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    We are on the island of Sant’Antioco connected to Sardinia by means of a bridge, near the town of Calasetta, situated along a slope in the north-west of the island and partially encircled by white beaches and the sea. The ancient name of Calasetta, Cala di Seta, meaning Bay of Silk derives its name from production of sea silk, a marine type of silk which is extracted from a bivalve mollusc called Pinna nobilis.

    The Tupei farm and guesthouse is located in the hillside above Calasetta, about 2 km from the town and about 1200 m from the sea. It was bought by Michele and Silvana Puxeddu in the 1990s, both of who weren’t working as farmers in advance. He was setting up dropped ceilings  and wall decors, while she was working with graphics for advertising. Having decided to change their lifestyles completely, they left their jobs and selected a life following age-old traditions and offering hospitality to their guests.

    Having parked at the entrance of the Tupei property, we first passed a group of horses looking at us expectantly before meeting Silvana, Michele and their dog Aprile. In addition to horses, they also raise goats, almost all them very curious when we visited them. They also had a few chickens which were free to go wherever they wanted. Besides, they are cultivating olives, vines, vegetables and fruits organically, all of which are served in the guesthouse.

    Being very conscious and attentive, Silvana and Michele had decided before our arrival to join a project intending to let farmers themselves control their own seeds. Instead, the international development tends towards multinational companies selling the same types of seeds to farmers, minimising diversity, and requiring pesticides made by other multinational companies.

    Luckily, at the same time as our short visit to the island of Sant’Antioco, a group of courageous women from a local agency called Laore, which occupies itself with rural development and an organisation called Domusamigas arrived shortly after us, bringing many types of seeds in their car in order to start the project. On our walk to a nearby field, they explained that Michele and Silvana had decided to take part in a genetic and evolutionary improvement of seeds developed and selected by the renowned professor Salvatore Ceccarelli with the objective to turn control of seeds to farmers, safeguarding local seeds and increasing biodiversity.

    Having arrived at the field, which was already prepared by Michele, he set out to divide it into 40 equally sized rectangles being helped by the women from Laore and Domusamigas together with my guide. Using a masonry chisel and a mallet, he hammered the chisel into the ground near one corner of the field, then using a tape measure, he located the second corner of the plots. Next, he started making a line perpendicular to the first line. In order to verify that the lines were perpendicular, he and one of his helpers used the Pythagorean theorem. Actually, it was a pleasure to see this theorem applied to a real problem for the first time in my life. Having ascertained the angles and the dimensions, the women poured chalk along each line. Unfortunately, the planting of the seeds would take place another day, meaning that we couldn’t be present. All in all, 17 types of seeds should be planted, two of them local and two hybrids, some of them new, some of them old. All in all, three farms in Sardinia participate in this project and it will be done for several years.

    The objectives of the project in which Silvana and Michele participate are the following:

    • rediscover the evolutionary capability of local seeds.
    • hand back production and selection of seeds to farmers.
    • learn new techniques in order to increase biodiversity without using artificial fertilisers.
    • promote and facilitate collaboration between research institutes and farmers.
    • identify which seeds are most adapted to this land and environment.
    • reproduce and improve ancient seed varieties leading to increased biodiversity, autonomy and better health for farmers due to not using pesticides.
    • let the plants create new varieties by cross-breeding like what has happened since agriculture began.

    Professor Ceccarelli is known for his programmes of genetic improvement in which farmers are selecting and planting seeds together with scientists. The work of professor Ceccarelli together with other scientists, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), has led to greater biodiversity and larger yields of crops in dry areas

    According to him we have to learn that “the seed is the foundation of life, food, and agriculture. However, farmers, who have been safeguarding and improving seeds since agriculture began, have been excluded from the production of seeds in the space of a few years. This exclusion has harmed everyone: farmers, agricultural research, our diets and the earth’s biodiversity. We have to make farmers cultivate various types of seeds for biodiversity, for themselves, for a secure food supply, and for the future”.

    We are grateful to Silvana and Michele Puxeddu for their hospitality and generosity and for letting us be present at such an important moment in their lives.

  • Il Paradiso farm and guesthouse

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    Going from Carbonia towards Cagliari, we turned slightly to the right a few kilometres from Carbonia, then having passed under the same road below a bridge, we arrived at Il Paradiso after a short trip on gravel roads.

    Upon our arrival, we came to a a wide and slightly undulating garden with trees like holm oak, cork oak and strawberry tree  together with shrubs like Phillyrea and broom alternating with small stands of maple trees  while roses, pomegranates and quince trees were scattered around the property. There were also apartments for their guests, a large dining room next to a big kitchen and houses for the residents.

    This farm was founded in 1955 when Vito Minaudo bought a piece of land at Barega near the town of Carbonia with the intention of growing vineyards and making wine. Now, it is managed by Vito’s son, Tommaso Minaudo who together with his wife and their daughter Francesca have continued and extended the work started by Vito.

    We were met by Tommaso Minaudo who guided us around his family’s property. Ascending a small hill, we walked along a path with groves of mastic  on both sides where we could sense rather intense aromas coming from the abundant vegetation. It felt good being in a serene place filled with colours and aromas reminding us about paradise and is probably the reason why this farm is called il Paradiso or the Paradise.

    The members of the Minaudo family obviously have a calling for agriculture and feel a strong attachment to their land. They are cultivating olive trees, vines, many types of vegetables and fruits besides raising chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea-fowls, rabbits, hares together with a few horses and donkeys and a flock of Tibetan goats.

    The Minaudo family also receive local children and youths intending to make them interested in or at least acquainted with agriculture and animal husbandry. Thus, il Paradiso is also an educational farm collaborating with local schools and letting the pupils cultivate their own vegetables. Tommaso proudly showed us the results of the children’s work from spring to autumn. They had planted seeds of tomatoes, courgettes/zucchinis  and eggplants/aubergines  and tended the vegetables such that they were ready to be harvested.

    Crop rotation  is practised at il Paradiso in order to replenish the soil with nutrients, improving soil strucure  and soil fertility.

    Excellent and delicious products, produced at this and nearby farms, are turned into delicious dishes for their guests and served in the grand dining room. Besides, their hospitality makes their guests feel welcome and they are returning repeatedly. A small swimming pool together with a small chute also makes this place attractive for families with children.

  • Vargiu goat farm

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    Going from the town of Pula, we drove through a large pine forest planted by man during the fascist era in Italy (1924-1943) when large oak forests together with indigenous plants were cut down in order to provide wood for building railways. Anyway, the forest we’re passing through is pretty, with lots of green pine trees, valleys, and reddish granite peaks.

    Having arrived at the parking space, we have to cross a small, dry riverbed before arriving at the goat farm at the top of a hillock. The view from the hillock is beautiful with a valley below and hills on the other side of the valley covered by bright, green pines in contrast with scattered, reddish columns of granite emerging between them and a brilliant, blue sky overhead.

    Just below the hillock, in a clearing illuminated by the sun, a flock of goats is passing through a gate in the fence surrounding the farm, while the owner of the farm, Efisio Vargiu, talks about raising goats. In fact, he started following his father raising goats when he was a small boy, first for fun, since because he wanted it.

    However, his father wanted to gradually reduce the number of goats and instead start cultivating a vineyard on his property along the alluvial plain  of Santa Margherita di Pula.  Instead, Efisio wanted to increase the size of the flock arriving at a total number of 500 goats.

    Fortunately, Efisio is being helped doing this difficult, but captivating work by his son Giuseppe, both of them determined to continue the family tradition.

    Nowadays, the size of the flock has been reduced to 190 individuals, all of whose names both Efisio and Giuseppe know by heart due to the affectionate tie between man and animal. The goats have names like: Cerexia, Bellina, Scamminada, Sposixedda, Scriana, Rubidosa, Anixedda… where the x is pronounced liked sh in e.g. ash.

    Only an affectionate shepherd can remember 190 names and recognise the appearance of every animal of the flock, but it’s only through this mutual bond that they can work in harmony. Efisio says that he’s born for this type of work and he has never regretted his choice of work. Evidently, this activity should be sustained and even increased. Unfortunately, Efisio asks rhetorically why the politicians aren’t able to see and understand how difficult it is to even find a spare shepherd. In particular, he doesn’t understand why he has to pay for a concession to the state for using an area for letting his animals graze. This activity is heading towards extinction and as he mentions with bitterness: “We are very sad when we know that our animals are roaming freely in the forest for which we pay a concession. The goats are scared and put in danger by hunters who can use the same area without paying anything. They are free to walk around, shooting wild animals for sports, while we are working in order to make a living and to maintain a demanding and irreplaceable human activity.”

    vargiu_skog_w500

    Today, father and son have arrived relatively late at the pen because at this time of the year the work is light, consisting of letting the goats enter the pen and feeding them what is required to complement the nourishment of the animals. The adult goats are all pregnant, leading to that they produce no or very little milk. Fortunately, both father and son are able to demonstrate that they can milk their goats by hand although the amount produced is minuscule. However, when the kids are born, the goats are milked since they produce more than their kids need and the milk is sold to dairies. However, the main income is given by the number of kids, which are born and survive. Both father and son have to be very attentive and help the goats in case of difficulty with the births. Naturally, the relation between man and animal gets even closer when the births are occurring.

    According to Efisio, in addition to remembering all the names of the goats, a shepherd must also be able to recognise all the kids, which get the same name as their mothers.

    In addition to having a mutually affectionate relation between man and animals, a shepherd also must be able to identify when the bucks are ready to mate (from June to September) and has to record the date when every goat has mated with a buck. From conception to birth takes 5 months minus 5 days, making Efisio and Giuseppe very alert when full term is approaching. In particular, if the goats are grazing far from the pen, a birth can be fatal for either goat or kid or even both of them, which would entail a major loss for the shepherds. Having recorded the date of conception, they can be present when the goats are about to give birth.

    While explaining these details to us, Efisio watches smilingly his son because he’s so proud of him. He has an extraordinary ability to help the goats if they have problems giving birth to their kids, in particular when the kid is positioned awkwardly, Efisio says.

    In spite of all the attention Efiso and Giuseppe are paying, sometimes a kid will be born far from the pen. In such cases, the goat stays with its kid, which has to rise up and walk to its mother in order to suckle. For the first three days, the kid’s paws grow rapidly more robust, but mother and kid stay together in the same place, else the kid can easily be killed by predators if it is left on its own. Then, when the kid is strong enough, they both walk back to the pen with the kid easily crossing rough terrain.

    During the first 35-40 days of the kid’s life, it lives inside the pen and sleeps inside a small room made of wooden boards and lying on a bed of branches with dry leaves, protecting it from the cold and from predators. Every 24 hours, in the morning, the mother returns, letting her kid suckle. Unfortunately, the kids, which represent the major income of the farm, are destined for the market, while only a minor number of them are allowed to join the flock. A product much sought after is rennet, a typical cheese which doesn’t require any processing. It’s obtained by extracting the stomach of the kid after having suckled its mother for the last time just before it’s slaughtered. This type of cheese is smoked and sold together with the meat of the kid.

  • Quesos Ugala farm

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    Going south from Bilbao towards the small village of Zaballa, the landscape changed from more or less fertile to quite dry. Having arrived at the village of Zaballa, it seemed like time stood still with stone houses looking like they were built in the Middle Ages. Having met Mila, she invited us into her house. There, she told my guide that she and her husband are both veterinarians, they had studied in another part of Spain, but had decided to come here to live and work. There was also one other couple, both veterinarians, who had joined them.

    After a short break, we headed out towards the barn with the young goats, all of them brown and black. After a quick look and having met Mila’s husband, Xabier, he let them outside. Then, he walked in front followed by a long row of goats and his wife behind. After having covered a short distance, the animals were let inside a pen where they could do whatever they wanted.

    Having released the young ones, we passed the pig Porky on or way back. Obviously, he was fond of Mila who caressed him like a dog.

    Then, we went to the barn with the adult goats, 3 males and about 80 females. The females were pregnant and they were about to stop producing milk. Of course, they would start producing milk again when the kids are born in February and March. A room next to the barn was equipped with a milking machine and the farmhouse dairy was about 2 minutes drive away.

    The adult animals were also let out. Xabier brought his backpack and led them in a single file across some fields in order to let them eat grass, but also lavender, juniper, and gorse, all of which add taste to the milk. However, since this is a dry area, they aslo have to be fed cereals.

    Instead, we went to the farmhouse dairy where we met Berta who was busy making cheese. Inside were various metal tanks containing milk, one of which was being heated. Having obtained the correct temperature, she added vegetable rennet in order to separate the curd from the whey, but the milk needed to rest for 24 hours before she could start separating them. In any case, the farmhouse dairy, the tanks, and the utensils all looked squeaky-clean, a requirement for all food producers.

    They produce the following: aged cheese, cottage cheese, and cream cheese besides yogurt. They are sold direct from the dairy shop, various food fairs, and select shops in Bilbao.

     

  • Håøya nature workshop

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    From the beginning of June to the middle of August you can go by boat from Aker pier in Oslo to Håøya, an island in the Oslo fjord, in about an hour. Having disembarked, follow the gravel road until you reach a fence which you follow till you reach a wooden construction. On your right, you can see a clearing about 50 metres away. Proceed to the clearing and you’ll arrive at Håøya nature workshop, a cooperative consisting of a cook, a dairy technologist, and a goat farmer. The building in which they work and sell their products have no running water and no electricity, meaning that this is really a work of passion.

    Due to changing use of this lovely island, former meadows have gradually been turned into forests and in order to counteract this, the goat farmer Helge Haugen has brought his Kashmir goats across the fjord from Sætre and let them graze the northern part of the island the last two years. In fact, Helge started breeding goats because he bought an overgrown farm and needed goats to open his property. Having worked with cheese for many years, the cook Yngve persuaded Helge to start a temporary goat farm on the island in order to produce goat cheese. However, the goats had never been milked, and the first trials started in February this year. After a lot a of work, most of the goats are willing to be milked by both female and male volunteers. Having finished the milking, the milk is brought about 50 metres to the house inside of which is a small dairy where rennet is added to the milk in order to separate the curd from the whey. The curd is laid in small, cylindrical containers with holes such that the whey can flow out and be collected in a bucket. Once a day, the whey is used to bake bread in a wood-fired oven. Since the milk is not heated, their cheeses are unpasteurised and very tasty.

    The cheeses, having about the same size as an ice hockey puck, are for sale at the house of the cooperative, and to select restaurants and shops. Customers can choose between freshly made or mature cheese besides having them covered with crushed juniper needles, cuckoo flower or charcoal.

    Having an appointment with Yngve, he readily showed me the dairy and their products and willingly let me taste their cheese, bread and apple juice., a wholesome meal indeed. Having talked about their enterprise, we walked to the milking house, that is the wooden building I passed earlier. Helge, being a practical person, had built it on his property, freighted it in parts to Håøya and assembled it. The goats walk up a ramp, then they will put their heads through some openings in a wall in order to reach what they like, while they are being milked at the same time. After milking, they are allowed to walk down a second ramp such that more goats can be milked. Unfortunately, milking times were early in the morning and late in the evening, while the arrival and departure times for the boat required that I had to stay one night on the island in order to see it.

    While the female goats and their kids are free to go near the house of the workshop, the male goats consisting of two bucks and some which are castrated are living on their own in two separate areas on the northern part of the island from April to October. There, they are welcome to graze whatever they find in order to open the landscape. I entered their enclosures and tried to find them without result. Anyway, Yngve told me that they had seen them by going near the island by boat and calling for them.

    Having returned, I found the goats and the kids on a meadow, busily eating grass and leaves, while some of them were ruminating or sleeping.

    Visitors arrived occasionally at the house of the cooperative, tasting the products and buying whatever they wanted. Approaching the time for the boat’s return to Oslo, I had to say goodbye to Yngve while he was preparing to receive another group of guests.

  • Visiting a sheepfold near Saschiz

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    We went by a horse-drawn cart from a Saxon village called Saschiz to another sheepfold. Leaving Saschiz quickly behind us, the strong mare Dora pulled us upwards on cobbled roads, then passing fields of maize until we came to meadows covered by hay. Dora, being a strong horse, and the horse-man driving her on, we quickly got within reach of a horse-drawn cart filled to the brim with hay. Fortunately, they turned left and we were free to go as we pleased passing meadows, deciduous trees and enjoying lovely views of the Transylvanian countryside. When we were approaching the sheepfold, the ever-present guarding dogs were the first ones to meet us, then we drove down to the sheepfold.

    The setup was more or less a copy of what we had seen before: one large enclosure encircling a smaller one bordered by a shed with two holes large enough for one sheep to pass through.

    Just 3 shepherds were milking the sheep, while a young girl who was probably the girlfriend of one them, was just sitting next to them milking no sheep. Of course, another shepherd was tasked with chasing the sheep into the small container, closing the gate when it was full and solving any problems the sheep might have with entering the shed. This day wasn’t as hot as the day when we visited the sheepfold near Viscri when the sheep seemed to be breathing heavily all the time. Another reason for the more relaxed behaviour of these sheep was that one guy was continually shearing sheep, having sheared one just selected another one. I was impressed seeing this guy bending over a sheep in the hot sun, shearing for hours. Anyway, getting rid of all that wool must have been great for them.

    The milking of the sheep was by now a standard procedure offering no surprises apart from some fit sheep which tried to jump past the shepherds but always ending up being restrained by their tails and milked.

    Due to unpredictable behaviour of the guarding dogs, we let Dora bring us from the sheepfold to the hut where the cheese would be made. The cheesemaking was done the same way as we had seen before, one shepherd putting his arms into the milk and gradually extracting the cheese mass. After having put it in a cloth and hung it up, the rest of the whey was put in a large pot, heated and after some time the ricotta cheese was lifted up and put in another container by means of a sieve. The whey was poured into a container providing food for their pigs.

    A large number of pigs were just resting in the shade during our visit, while some puppies were playing. Eventually, their mother arrived apparently full of milk ready to be consumed by her puppies.

    We were also shown a baby deer which had been left by its mother just a few days before. It made a loud squeaking noise for some reason.

    Having watched both milking, cheesemaking and shearing, it was time to let trustworthy Dora and her horseman bring us safely back to Saschiz. Getting encouraging calls more or less constantly from the horseman, she easily brought us back again.

  • The Suciu family

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    Having visited Rozalia, we crossed the street in order to visit Elena and her husband Adrian Suciu. They have about 200 goats and they produce various types of goat cheese which they mix with one of the following:

    • nuts
    • pepper
    • caraway
    • green pepper
    • mint
    • basil

    The goats reside close to Crit and having gone to the outskirts of the village, then followed a very bumpy road for a few minutes, we arrived at an enclosure with the goats. The system for milking was the same as we had seen for the sheep, that is a small enclosure from which the animals can only exit through two small holes in the wall of a shed. There, Adrian and a worker milked each goat by hand while a young boy made sure that there were always goats ready to enter the shed.

    Having milked the goats twice daily, Adrian brings the milk by car to a small dairy next to their house. Having just arrived with the milk, they pour it into a large container through a filter. Heating the milk up to about 40°C, adding rennet in order to separate the whey from the cheese mass, the cheese mass is lifted up into plastic moulding forms which are placed in a container with a sink such that the whey can be collected in a another container. In the beginning, they have to turn the cheeses around every 10 minutes both to the get rid of the whey and to let the cheeses keep their shapes. After some time, salt is added both to put taste to the cheese and to get rid of more of the whey.

    They also made sour cream by pouring some of the milk into a small container on top of a separator. Then, skimmed milk was running down one side of the separator, while sour cream was running down another one, both being collected in separate containers.

    Adrian also made a cheese called ricotta which means recooked in Italian. The whey from just one production was brought outside in a large pot and hung from a horizontal bar. Then, he made a fire below the pot and stirred they whey more or less continuously in order to avoid burning of the remaining cheese in the whey. After some time, a foam started appearing on the top of the whey which he removed carefully by means of a sieve. A little bit later, the cheese mass started thickening and Adrian used a sieve to pick it up and pour into another container through a porous cloth. In this way, the ricotta would remain on top of the cloth, while the whey would end up in the container. Afterwards, the cloth was tied around the ricotta and hung up to the let the whey exit.

    In addition to helping her husband make cheese, Elena also makes lots of jams and sweet fruit juices. She makes the following jams:

    • apricot
    • elder fruits
    • cornelian cherries
    • wax cherry
    • plums
    • plums with nuts and cinnamon
    • morello cherry
    • rose hip
    • wild strawberry

    She makes the following fruit juices:

    • blackberry
    • acacia flowers
    • bitter cherry

    The products of the Suciu family are for domestic consumption, tourists and various markets in Romania.

  • Agrilanga farm

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    In order to arrive at the Agrilanga farm, my guide Filippo had to ask for directions from some of the locals since it was somewhat difficult to find. However, after having found the guesthouse, we were met by Massimo Trinchero, the man who’s responsible for raising their goats and making goat’s cheese. After a short walk we arrived at a building where one part is used for the dairy, the middle is used for milking the goats, while the rest houses the goats. By means of some plumbing, after having finished the milking of the goats, the milk is transferred to the dairy such that it can be turned into cheese more or less immediately.

    Since a property of about 50 hectares surrounding the stable where the goats are residing, they can graze freely outside for about 9 months yearly, while they are fed locally grown hay for the remaining 3 months of the year. Since this is an organic farm, the cultivation of hay also has to follow certain rules. In addition to having access to first-class food, the goats are treated as well as possible since the quality of the milk depends on that they have a good life.

    Being located in the southern part of Piemonte, the local climate is strongly influenced by the nearby sea leading to a normally abundant precipitation. This leads to that the meadows surrounding the farm are fertile and that they contain lots of aromatic herbs, which after having been eaten by the goats, will certainly influence the taste of their milk.

    Cheeses, two of whose generic name is Robiola di Roccaverano, are made at the dairy of Agrilanga. In fact, six types of cheese are made:

    • Fresh Robiola di Roccaverano PDO (Protected Designation of Origin)
    • Mature Robiola di Roccaverano PDO
    • Langhetta
    • Fresh goat’s cheese
    • Goat’s cheese with herbs
    • Goat’s cheese with vegetable carbon

    The Robiola di Roccaverano cheeses are known from before the Roman conquest of present Italy, and they have been described by the illustrious Roman author Pliny the elder. The name Robiola derives from the Latin word “robium” referring to the reddish surface of the cheese, while Roccaverano is the place from which the cheese originates. One of the rules which has to be followed states that the cheese has to contain at least 50% goat’s milk, while the rest can also be cow’s or sheep’s milk.

    The taste of the cheeses vary with the seasons in accordance with what the goats are eating. In spring and early summer, the fragrances are dominated by fresh grass, cherry and hazel. At the end of summer, some of the goats will enter pregnancy and start producing less milk. However, their milk will contain more fat and the cheeses will be at their most fragrant.

    Besides the Agrilanga farm, there is a consortium consisting of 19 small-scale producers making the Robiola di Roccaverano a product with many contributors.

    After having founded this farm in the middle of the 90s, about 15 years later the owner had the great satisfaction of selling lots of his products in a place called Grasse in France being considered the fatherland of goat’s cheese. The cheeses from this farm are also exported to Germany.