Adopt a Shepherd and a Wild Cheese

Cheese lovers agree that cheeses produced with raw milk are very often organoleptically superior to those produced with pasteurized milk.

Raw milk cheese without added ferments best expresses the territory where it was produced and the skills of the producer. 

The microbes naturally present in milk just after milking are numerous, complex and produce more aromatic compounds, furthermore the natural microflora present in the milk is specific to the producer and expresses the history, techniques, territory, people, breeds, climate where the cheeses are produced.

So heat treat the milk before cheesemaking means killing all of this opportunities.

Raw milk is not the only element that contributes to creating a great cheese, it also requires a good cheesemaker and a good milk rich in aromatic complexity.

It is necessary to graze the animals and feed them with grass, hay, avoiding monofeed, silage and anything else used in industrial diary farms which aims to increase productivity at the expense of quality.

A cheeses produced with no heat treatment, no industrial starters, with natural rennet, with grass fed milk can be defined as Natural Cheeses or as we prefer a Wild Cheeses.

Producing cheeses in respect of the traditions is more complex and risky than produce anonymous pasteurized milk cheeses using help as additives such as calcium chloride, enzymes, antifungals.

Making Natural Cheeses - Wild cheeses is less profitable and more risky, that is why this producers and their wonderful cheeses are disappearing and with them their old traditions and "secrets".

Being a Shepherd often means to be considered at the bottom of the social ladder.

This is not right!

• We are for raw milk cheeses and we are for wild cheeses
• We are for (eventually) use of starters such as wheystarters in contrast to industrial starters
• We are for transforming into cheeses noble milk or milk obtained from grazing animals (when possible) and / or fed on hay
• We are for transhumance
• We are for protecting of the most authentic traditions
• We are for non-trivial flavors
• We are for the fair remuneration of producers who produce in compliance with natural cycles
• We are for the respect of the shepherds, guardians of the territory and traditions and for their social enhancement.
• We are for variations in taste and characteristics of natural cheese according to the seasons
• We are for the environment protection and for the reduction of greenhouse gases
• We are for animal welfare