In Catalunya during Franco’s rule practically all traditional cheeses disappeared except for the odd cheese here and there in the Pyrenees and practically for self consumption alone (Serrat) the only traditional cheese that was still being made was Mató, a fresh cheese without salt very similar to ricotta but with variations.
The truth is that I don’t know what the tradition was lost but by mid 20th century Catalunya just didn’t have the richness or variety of cheeses like in other parts of Spain. Post CIvil war, round the 50s there was a big migration from the country to the city in order to find more opportunities for work.
At the end of the 70s/ beginning of the 80s, there was a movement of new ruralites and hippies that returned to the small towns and farms to live on the land. There wasn’t a lot of available land so they worked as artisans and with foodstuffs.
Our family began around this time – who made cheese were those who owned animals and we made cheese to give value to our milk. Also at this time, beginning 80s, a few workshops were formed and there were professors or technical advisors to teach how to make cheese.
The first Garrotxa was made in Sant Miquel de Campmajor in the province of La Garrotxa (Girona) The first producer was the hippy Pere Argudo. One of the first technical advisors was Enric Canut (today he’s responsible for many important advances in the cheeseworld in Spain).
To make the cheese they asked a grandmother how she used to make her goat cheese and they copied the recipe. This cheese was nothing like todays. It was a mixed coagulation cheese, much more acidic than today, with a lot of humidity and an aging of about 2-3 weeks max. La Garrotxa is a very humid area and an acidic cheese, soft and with lots of humidity caused lots of mold to grow. The decision was made to keep the mold as it grew spontaneously.
Originally the cheese wasn’t called Garrotxa, it was called “de pell florida” which means with a molded rind. It is still an oddity why we all call the cheese Garrotxa when we make the cheese outside the town but even in Spain it’s known with this name.
Sant Gil D’Albio
We are an agricultural family and have been all of our lives. Our profession was cereal. My father inherited the land and my uncle with animals. In 1983 more or less my uncle bought some goats although he had no clue what to do with them as he was used to raising pigs and chickens.
My mom raised three kids- I am the middle one. As we were no longer so small and needed so much attention, as a hobby my mom started making cheese. My mother Nati is very entrepreneurial and in just a few years she started a dairy in 1986). There was no cheese culture in our family and she began from 0, reading books, taking short courses and making mistakes. She worked alone at first and then with a helper.
Since I was 11 I always helped out. I studied agriculture and when I finished at the age of 19. I began first in the fields. I kept leaning towards the cheese and made the decision to dedicate myself to making cheese. When I was 22 or 23 my mother gave me a metal box full of money and told me who I needed to pay, all the things I needed to do and I took the reigns of the business . I am very appreciative having done this and having been given the opportunity. You know the rest of the story Michele – we met shortly after that in Aimentaria.
Today we have 6 employees plus the two of us- we make 60-70,000 kg of cheese per year and we keep working with the same passion as we did from the start. With time I have grown to like the cheese world even more. The cheese has evolved from a younger more acidic cheese to one that is more enzymatic and aged. It is a more predictable cheese to handle.
For the original Spanish, please click here.
