Quesería Era del Cardón, Agüimes, interview conducted by @loretosocorro
Luis Martel and Lucía Torres are in charge of keeping alive the family legacy that they collected in 2003. They continue with the careful elaboration of cheese made one hundred percent with goat's milk.
With the mask, the hose and the hat, we went to the area behind the office - the area dedicated to the production of cheeses - and there we spoke with Lucía Torres, who is a person who likes us the first time, due to her welcoming and affable attitude.
Do you make cheese every day?
As a general rule from Monday to Friday, it depends on the season. Right now on Wednesdays no cheese is made but that milk is taken to the milkman. In times of low production, the milk of two days is collected and cheese is made on alternate days. We are making cheese based on production and what we are selling.
Where does the work begin to have cheese on the table?
The work starts with the goats, taking care of them and feeding them. We use a mixture of forage and feed. This year we are starting to make the feed here, that and forage is what they eat outside the ship.
Is there some kind of grazing?
The goats go out into the open air around seven in the morning and at three in the afternoon they come out again.
What breed of goat makes up the cattle?
The goats are of the Majorera breed.
We see that they are making cheese in the adjoining room. Is a lot of soft cheese sold?
Tender we sell very little. We are maturing our cheese. The one that you like the most is the one from twenty days to a month and without spreading. After twenty days it is spread with gofio or paprika and it continues to cure. For a cheese to be cured it must have a minimum of ninety days.
"Cheese is time, give it time"
Apart from cheese, is whey marketed?
No. We pack it and take it to feed animals, especially pigs, and to sulfate because there are those who make an ecological sulfate with it. We know that whey has many properties and cottage cheese is pure protein, but we can't get into more. For each product you must have a specific installation and an independent health protocol.
We see you dispatch cheese right here on the farm.
Most customers come to look for cheese here, although there are two stores in Agüimes that also sell it.
How did the confinement affect the production and sale of cheese?
People stopped coming and in a fortnight the sale plummeted and the chamber was filled with nothing. We had to go out and take to the streets to distribute. With a few customer contacts, we called and some called others, that's how we organized ourselves and people were grateful for the home delivery. After confinement a few clients have asked that we continue to take him home but most like to come, see the cheese, talk to us.
On the other side of the glass we see how an employee is filling molds, one after another; once filled they are squeezed, first by hand and then with a press. Lucia explains the routine to us.
As it is milked, the milk is transferred to the cold tank and from there to the curdling tank, which has a water bath that heats the milk to 32 degrees and then the rennet is added. Once the milk is curdled, it begins to cut and it has to stay like grains of rice, little one, little one. The next step is to take it to the draining pan and in this way we achieve that the curd stays on top and that the serum goes down to the tanks, where it is then collected for feeding the animals.
Do you feed the goats with the serum?
Here we do not use it for livestock, at the moment, because it requires a very special filter system.
The idea we have is to prepare a tank and instead of water, add serum to the goats, but it has to be very well done so it does not get acid and not cause problems. That would be a treat for goats. It is a matter of time and money.
How many sizes of cheese do you make?
There are five sizes of cheese: 8 kilos, 3 kilos, 2 kilos, 1,5 kilo and a half kilo
We return with the cheese making:
These cheeses are already out of the mold today and a little employee is put on them, we add the point of salt on one side when they are already in the chamber and the next day they are turned over and the salt is put on the other side.
How many days do they stay with the employee?
They are like this for two days. Then the job is to clean the cheese and turn it every day.
We go to the chamber that is set at 14 degrees and with a humidity of 60 percent. The cheeses are placed there to ripen.
As soon as the door is opened, the perfume of the cheese passes through our masks and the pupils dilate with the beauty of the Orb of suns and moons. Painted and unpainted cheeses are appreciated: white, gold and others with amber tones.
They all have a mold stamped number that is the date and the batch. The lightest and darkest are painted with raw gofio and toasted gofio. In a bucket, put the mixture of oil, gofio and the touch of paprika, the one that takes it. And they are painted.
How do you paint them?
Is caressed round -Lucía grabs a cheese and strokes it with care- and so they are painted by hand.
This cheese factory has had several awards, how do you get a prize cheese?
You have to introduce yourself, have a good cheese, in the sense that you're not going to send just anyone ... but then it's not just your taste. Most of my awards are for cured cheese and the best selling is semi.
The quality of the Canarian cheeses is very good, in general. Very good cheeses are presented to all competitions. The differences between the various cheeses are minimal.
What is rewarded in the contests?
What is rewarded is the whole: the texture, the visual aspect, the exterior and the interior. If it has defects to the naked eye such as shape or internal holes (eyes). Many things are valued and then the nuances of the flavor as if it is very acidic, sour ...
How do you choose a cheese to submit to a contest?
I trust Luis's criteria because his eye is very experienced.
The last prize was a painted cheese that was not cured, it was semi-cured and was chosen by Luis.
Lucia picks up another cheese and shows it to us while serenely recreating herself.
To value a cheese you have to look at it, touch it, weigh it, squeeze it. See that it is not deformed.
Why tighten it?
To see how hard it is, in case the cheese still yields or not. These large cheeses take longer to cure and you always tend to squeeze it to see the point they have. Rubbing it is a hobby of mine. -Lucía leaves the cheese in its place and takes out others- The cheese can get marks from the cloths themselves and it seems cracked but it is not a crack and it does not affect the taste or quality at all, although it is not a contest cheese, visually.
This has an oval shape because the employee was pressing more from the top than the bottom and it stayed that way, deformed. It is not going for a prize either.
Anything that has surprised you about the opinions about your cheeses in competitions?
Sometimes they say that the cheese has a fruity flavor and I am surprised but then I think that, of course, goats eat herbs that throw seeds and who does not tell you that, for example, hawthorn trees that are plants in the area and put a few species of tomatoes, which I can assimilate to goji goji, because that may give the cheese a fruity flavor.
We say goodbye to Lucia because she is going to prepare the distribution. We went out to see the herd and talked to Luis, who welcomed us with great friendliness. How much cattle are there in the Era del Cardón Cheese Factory?
About 550 animals here and then about 370 herds on the other farm.
What time are they milked?
At half past six they are milked, once a day, every day. Now they are in the feeding phase to give milk. When they are three months pregnant I dry them with a change of diet.
What change is that Luis?
Now they take alfalfa, millet, straw and that is a lot of protein. Then I lower the protein level by removing millet and adding more barley and, naturally, they dry out.
The cattle are calm and chewing or bleating at ease. Here, as Lucía said, is where the life of cheese begins, taking care of the majorera goat so that quality milk is not lacking. Luis and Lucía's work is a daily sacrifice with a dose of affection for what they do, so that we do not lack a good cheese, an award cheese, on our table every day.
