In June, we were allowed to spend 3 weeks with Marie at the Ferme Manestin in Southern France. We were supposed to learn about goat-keeping and cheese-making but, as is so often the case, by learning about the process and the work behind it, we’ve come to truly appreciate the product. Sure, cheese has always been tasty and the awareness, that there’s a craft behind it – as long as you don’t buy the packaged cheese from the conglomerates – has always been there. Still, we ate it far too frequently and taken for granted. When we passed a bookstore in Heidelberg a couple of years ago and stopped to look at a book about cheese-making – how cool would it be to actually make your own cheese! – our excitement quickly turned into shock: unbelievable how much milk is required for such a small amount of cheese. For 1kg of cheese, you need between 4 and 13 liters of milk – the least when making cream cheese and the most when making hard cheese. The CO₂ footprint growing accordingly. Subconsciously, we significantly reduced our cheese consumption following that realisation. However, CO2 and climate change aren’t the only relevant factors when it comes to sustainability. We know, for example, that the regenerative management of grasslands and prairies through grazing animals can have a very positive impact on biodiversity and soil health. So we haven’t stopped eating dairy products – we have simply started to view our consumption from a different perspective.
As we’ve already mentioned, we choose regional, seasonal and unpackaged products when grocery shopping and cheese alternatives, made from cashews for example, just cannot keep up with cheese bought directly from the cheese maker when it comes to that. And yes, seasonality also plays a role when it comes to cheese – as long as it’s not artificially eliminated – because dairy products are not naturally available all-year round, neither do they always taste the same. When the animals are allowed to go outside, they eat what’s currently growing, which is influencing the taste of the cheese in turn. In Autumn, the animals stop producing milk because they need the energy for their own immune system and the growth of their baby goat, which is going to be born at the beginning of the following year.
Cheese is still a delicious product that is crafted with great dedication, and we want to honor this work by enjoying cheese mindfully and selectively in small quantities, instead of eating it everyday out of habit without thinking about what’s behind it all. And that’s exactly what Marie taught us.
For one Tomme of about 700g – a mild hard cheese that needs to age for one month – she needs approximately 8 liters of milk. If you take 3-4 hours a day to herd the goats outside their fenced pasture, so that they eat more, they produce an additional 10 liters of milk the following day. Think about it: 3 to 4 hours of work for one Tomme and you haven’t even milked, molded or removed the cheese from its mold yet! Resistant, ancient breeds give about 1 liter of milk per day. While goats, which have been bred for milk-production, give about 4 liters a day. However, after 4 years, these will be “milked dry” instead of after 8, as usually. An age which they probably won’t even reach, while the natural life expectancy is actually 12.
Again, we return to the difference between small farmers and factory farming, which we already wrote about. While big dairies receive the milk, which is then processed by machines and turned into dairy products like cheese, small farmers live the process from beginning to end. From the birth of the baby goats to the fully aged cheese. Milking in the barn in the morning, processing the milk by hand in the cheese dairy afterwards, out on the prairie with the goats in the afternoon and to the market in the evening. Farmer, Shepherd, Producer, Merchant and Consumer 😋
How much work really goes into a cheese is hardly seen standing in front of the refrigerated section: feeding, milking, taking care of the health of the animals, fencing, herding, mucking out the barn, making hay for winter and multiple days or even weeks that go into the making and storing of every single cheese until it is ready for sale. However, most cheese eaters have not yet been able to enjoy the beautiful aspects of keeping animals either: the birth of the baby goats and how they are happily hopping around and fight each other wagging their tails because it’s just so much fun. How the small one is always bleating to find its mother, who’s always answering no matter if the little one calls 1,2, or 18 times. But also the different personalities of goats, which should never be reduced to “Nothing but nonsense in their heads, destroy everything and are always finding a way to break out”. Here are a couple of personalities among Marie’s nearly 70 goats:
1. The one who’s always first in line when it’s time for milking, no matter if it’s 5 or 10am.
2. The one who’s in charge and leads the herd, but will not move one millimeter when you pet her.
3. The one with the most amazing eyebrows and bangs that look like she puts in a curler every night.
4. The black cloud that suddenly appears behind you and unexpectedly bites your elbow.
5. And of course the one that is always, honestly always last and falls asleep while milking.
But also, the herding of the animals on a sunny day. When, as soon as you’ve set up your folding chair, they huddle around you to cuddle, and you constantly feel like a thunderstorm is brewing because you’re surrounded by digesting goats. Slowly but surely a bond with the animals is build as you take care of them 7 days a week, let them out in the morning and bring them back inside in the evening. Gradually you learn to recognize them based on their physical, but especially based on their personality traits.
By the way, this is Mara.
So, which of the five personalities do you think she is? 😉
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