(46) In goat country …

Hi there again, in goat country you could try to do like goat do, however you have to find the animal first! This remind me of more than twenty years ago when I was somewhere north-west of Valençay, in a different goat country area, and I saw some signs advertising farms producing the local goat cheese. I tried to find and visit one of them, and I failed miserably, I never found one of these farms, I never saw any goat even though I followed the signs for some time.

So, when in goat country, make goat cheese, but leave it to the professionals! And if ever you find a farm, very good of you.

Anyway, as I talked in my last blog of my visit to France, you might have noticed that I was invited to a production site, a goat cheese production site about just shy of two hours south of Nantes, in the Poitou.

I was picked up by the hotel and we drove south towards Niort, that we avoided, and reached the town of Fontenille-Saint-Martin-d’Entraigues. This town is small like many in this agricultural area and is situated in the bottom of the Deux-Sèvres department, south of the Marais Poitevin in the west and about equidistant from Poitiers in the north-east and Angoulème in the south. The easy part was to park in front of the fromagerie, the building is by the main road with a nice sign figuring the company name well positioned.

Curd getting ready in a vat, slowly, the essence of the cheese.

We were welcomed at the entrance by one of the two main persons responsible for the site and were quickly kitted out with white blouse, shoe protection, hairnet, and mask. Then the production manager, a very competent technician who explained everything ever so well through the visit, took over and guided us towards the production of the site proper.

The first part is the milk treatment room of course. A lot of the production is made with thermised milk; however, raw milk production is where the products shine, a bit like the rooms that were spotless. Due to the time of the day when we arrived, late morning, coagulation had been done before and they were in the process of checking the diverse stocking areas. This explained in a way why we were so well received and shown everything.

The second room was impressive with many vats where the coagulated milk was slowly drying before moulding. It is checked for conformity and for dry matter content. It is where the magic of cheese starts; furthermore, as it is made of lactic coagulation this is one of the most important rooms in the whole production site.

Of course, the next room was the moulding room where some curd was being made ready for Mothais, many moulds ready on the tables to be filled by hand, quite a spectacle in itself.

We moved on to the drying room where the production of the day was getting in shape on the drying tables, an impressive sight with a light lactic odour.

Then we moved on to the maturing stage. This is made up of four refrigerated cellars. I call these cellars because it is the traditional name even though they are modern refrigerated room with controlled hydrometry. The first one could be called the last drying room; it is there that the rind is affirmed, that the cheese when he arrives is still relatively moist and shiny and then this specific gloss disappears. The rind is made, and the inside will grow in a different way. It is quite something to see the ashed cheeses at this stage, like a showroom car at a salon all sparkling and shiny comparatively to the regular car on the road.

The second cellar is where the development of the rind is most pronounced, you can see that a kind of coating is formed and the character of the cheese is being created, this is a very important stage with a slight diminution of the humidity level.

At the third and fourth cellars, the cheese is finished and controlled. The sight of all these cheeses on their racks, one stack behind the next one all in columns, with different shapes and colours made me proud to be part of this great business.

Especially more so when I was able to listen to the explanations given by the great technician. It was possible for me to ask a few questions there and again, and I very much appreciated this very informative visit. I realised later on that I could have put some more pertinent questions during the visit, that maybe I should have double checked the information concerning this workshop. All of that said, I should say that I was able to understand the whole process as demonstrated and that all the information given was interesting and to the point.

We finished the tour at the packing room, where two nice ladies were preparing some packaging for the next expedition. We talked shop for a few minutes, and I congratulated them all for such a wonderful experience, this was a treat.

We got undressed and thanks again the team in charge before it was time for us to drive away satisfied by a great visit and a warm welcome.

Oh, and by the way, still no goat around!

At least ten different goat cheeses are made at the fromagerie, some with milk treated in a different way to match a specific market. All through the visit, it was impressive to see the care and quality given to each product. And the team is very proud of their creations and are happy to show off their protected cheeses (Chabichou and Mothais) that requires some specific manipulations.

At least visit your local fromagerie, I only hope that there is one nearby where you live, this is always such a pleasure (and by that, I mean cheese shop).

And remember, give life to your taste buds, and above all, enjoy real cheese.