In the French Pyrenean valley of Aspe, going up the Labadie River, there are small valleys surrounded by high peaks that pour the waters to France and Spain. In the summer months these headwaters of the valley become an ideal place to graze cattle. In these valley bottoms, the excellent quality of the high altitude pastures and the clean air are decisive for the livestock feeding to be healthy, abundant and nutritious. And all this is well known to Henri Rachou-Langlatte, a Lescun farmer who, at the beginning of the summer, went up to the Bonaris hut with his herds of cows and sheep, the donkey and all the equipment for making cheese. Henri came into contact with the profession of shepherd from a very young age in the year 38, and it was during the Second World War when he began to stay alone in the mountains. Like every day, today he got up at six thirty in the morning. After a light breakfast, she cleaned and prepared the buckets and milk jugs. Before the rays of the sun warm the valley floor and make it difficult to work, Henri has gone out to milk the cows. Milking is an operation that must be practiced with great care, and it constitutes a true massage of the cow's breast that notably influences the increase in milk production. Every time he milks a cow, Henri collects the milk in the milk churns, previously filtering it with gauze to separate all the solid matter that could have fallen into the bucket. The operation of milking a cow begins with the excitement of the udder by gently stretching the teats. Henri then squeezes the milk out forcefully and when he can no longer express it by pressure, he gently slaps the breasts with his fist, imitating the blows of the calf with the head. Henri has the dozen cows he raised in early summer in good control. The dog is your best ally to bring animals that graze away to the point of milking. Our friend the shepherd, who knows all the secrets of cattle well, knows that it is very important to treat cows with affection and disturb them as little as possible, since they want tranquility and calm to be milked. The frequency of milking causes breast development and increased milk production. Henri, you will milk the cows again, like every day, in the afternoon, after about twelve hours. The shepherd should keep the milk for a few hours before curdling it. To prevent bacteria from fermenting in the heat, cool it with fresh, running water next to the hut. "The milk must be uncovered, it cannot be closed, when it is cold it can be covered." To make the cheese, Henri heats the milk that was milked the day before inside the cabin . Today, butane has replaced the wood fire. All components (butter, casein, sugar and salts) remain intact when the milk is heated . To set it, Henri must raise the temperature between 28 and 30 degrees, which forces him to maintain a meticulous control with the thermometer. When it reaches the ideal temperature, it is time for the milk to curdle spontaneously due to the addition of the extracts that are sold commercially to coagulate. Until a few years ago, Henri used the rennet that he prepared himself with the fourth stomach extracted from ruminants during their lactation. This coagulation process consists of making casein pass from the soluble state in which it is found to the insoluble state; thus it agglomerates in lumps that carry all the butter and that due to their greater density are easily separated from a liquid called whey. "To keep warm and protect it from flies." During the hour or hour and a half it takes for the milk to curdle, our friend the shepherd takes the opportunity to milk the sheep that are still in the fold. The herd of sheep spend every night in the enclosed mountains. With a special door system Henri lets the animals out one by one, selecting the males from the females. The work of milking the sheep is more sacrificed since the amount of milk obtained from each animal is less than that of the cows. However, its quality is four times higher. "Sheep's milk is 4 times more valuable than cow's milk, for one reason: If with 5 liters of sheep's milk we make a kilo of cheese ... and 11 liters of cow's milk are needed, double that ... Sheep's cheese is worth twice as much as cow's cheese, commercially. It has a value 4 times more than cow's cheese. Cow's cheese is sold at 35 FF and sheep's cheese at 70 FF ". "It takes 40 liters of cow's milk to replace 10 liters of sheep's milk." "The taste, the quality of the milk is much better in the sheep cheese and it is more expensive." At these dates near the end of summer, the sheep are already pregnant and give less milk every day . Perhaps in ten days it will no longer be necessary to milk them. But at the beginning of December the amount of milk will be intense again, when the lambs have been born. In the month of January, 10 liters of sheep's milk are extracted per day. Because the lambs have just been born. That is why they give a lot of milk. Now it's over; in 15 days there will be no more. At the beginning of December it will begin. There will already be sheep that will have lambs at the end of November, even in the middle of November. Sheep's milk has a control. The amount of milk that some sheep give is controlled. A technician comes to check once a month and does the average of what they give. There is a sheep that has given more than 200 liters of milk in 6 months. The docility of sheep is sometimes not as real as we have believed, and the shepherd's dog sometimes has to face resistance from some males. In addition to the utensils to make the cheese and the herds of cattle and sheep, at the beginning of summer Henri also raised five small pigs to raise them in the middle of nature, living with the sheep and goats. In this time that Henri has invested to milk the sheep, the milk will have already curdled in the cabin. But first he must release the cattle and leave them to graze alone for the breadth of the valley. As he did with cow's milk, our friend the shepherd cools the obtained from the sheep with running water , to keep it in perfect hygienic conditions until it is transformed. The milk has already curdled, and the shepherd subjects the clot obtained to a series of manipulations aimed at separating it from the whey and giving it the necessary consistency. Keeping the temperature warm, the pastor mixes the liquid with his hands while breaking up the casein into lumps. It is time to let the lumps dissolved in the whey rest for a few minutes, to then begin the process of making the cheese. Henri presses the lumps against the wall of the cauldron with his hands and gives the cheese a round shape in the whey. This is a slow and patient process, but there is no problem because the pastor has the rest of the day to do it. The artisan has already shaped the cheese with all the lumps of casein that were in the cauldron. But there is still serum in it. With evenly driven steel needles , Henri extracts a large part of this serum through the holes that form. When you have done this job of driving the needles twice over the entire surface, it is time to give the final shape to the cheese. "You have to put this letter, which means that it is mixed, mixed. To put the letter it is necessary ..." The cheese made by Henri during the summer in the mountains is made with a mixture of sheep's and cow's milk. However, the one he makes in the fall, when the sheep are pregnant, he only makes it with cow's milk. From December, when the lambs are born and the sheep give milk again, the shepherd will make only pure sheep's cheese. With some wooden molds, the craftsman can maintain the shape of the cheese for a few hours until it is completely compact. Differences in composition and manufacturer's brand are reflected in the surface of the cheese. The B indicates that it is a pure sheep's cheese, the V if it is cow and the M if it is mixed with the milk of both. "This is the trusted brand ... Someone's good cheese. These letters are initials. If he's happy, he'll come back. If he's not happy he can't give us back the cheese and say 'no good'. We practically know which is good. So if he finds it good, he will come and buy this cheese. " A good shepherd takes advantage of everything that nature gives him and the animals that he himself raises. Therefore, it is not by chance that Henri has brought five pigs up to the valley to raise them during the summer months. The large quantity of whey obtained daily is an excellent food for these animals, made up of water, lactin and all the mineral substances that the dissolved milk contained. The pastor knows very well that if he did not consume the serum at the moment he would have to throw it away, losing this rich nutritional contribution. To prevent the pigs from entering the hut and causing damage when moving through the valley, the shepherd has been proactive and has placed a grid on the floor of the entrance so that the hooves of their feet are hooked. When the cheeses are already compact, the artisan must keep them in a cool and dark place. Near the cabin there is a small cave that meets the necessary conditions to keep them in perfect condition during the fermentation process. But before leaving them to rest in the dark boxes of the cave, cover their surface with common salt so that it is slowly absorbed. Every week, when he goes down to the village to buy food, Henri will bring down the longest-made cheeses from the cavalry to keep on his farm. There are only a few days left until the end of the summer. The ewes will only give milk for about ten more days, as their state of pregnancy cuts them off until they give birth. The days are getting shorter and shorter. All this indicates that very soon the shepherd will have to go down with his cattle, utensils and the last manufactured cheeses to spend the winter in the town. The cheeses made in the mountains in an environment of pure air, green pastures and excellent conditions for their good fermentation, will now rest for a few months on the shelves of the dark cellar that the artisan has prepared in his village farm. The cheese drying and curing operation is the most important in manufacturing. Due to fermentation, the cheese acquires its special properties and characteristics that give it the peculiar flavor that distinguishes each artisan cheese maker. In the farm's cellar, the artisan cheesemaker repeats the salting process once again after cleaning the surface of the cheeses with water. Although the fermentation process requires rest in a dark space and at a suitable temperature and humidity for a few months, depending on their composition, from time to time Henri must turn the cheeses and keep the shelves clean. Both the direct sale of the cheeses on his own farm and their acquisition in the surrounding stores and large commercial areas, will report to our friend Henri the benefits of his sacrificial work of many hours, days and months in the mountains, making some cheeses. Quality craftsmen that can only be achieved with their experience, dedication and affection.
