MENSCHEN TITLE THEME
MENSCHEN TITLE THEME Milk production in France CHEESE GALORE 6
Farmers almost everywhere have difficulties because of low milk prices. French farmers know this type of problem too – but not the milk producers of Franche-Comté in the northeast of the country. There, a very special cheese is produced, and the unique regulations applying to this premium product influence the entire region. The building in the center of the village Flagey is hardly noticeable. Only a small sign indicates that, there, the cheese Comté is produced and sold by Yves Cuinet. In the dairy, he processes milk delivered by a total nine dairy farmers from the surrounding villages, including that from his own cows. Parked behind the building is a small milk tanker that collects the milk from the farmers each evening. Differently from other parts of France, here a small cheese processing plant still exists in just about every village. These produce AOP Comté. AOP stands for appellation d’origine protégée (protected designation of origin): a seal of quality awarded by the European Union and guaranteed by strict production regulations. Inside the cheese plant stand two large gleaming red copper kettles. The capacity of one kettle is enough to produce six cheese rounds. The milk from the previous day has been already processed in the morning. The result is piled at one side of the small room: 20 forms filled with still-fresh cheese. Surplus whey still drips out of the forms. It’s warm in the room. Not until the evening will one of Yves Cuinet’s cheesemaking colleagues loosen the cheeses from their forms, rub the rounds with brine and take them down to the small vaulted cellar. A tiny stairway leads from the production room down behind into the cool of the cellar where a spicy aroma envelopes those descending, the smell of cheese after cheese, all ripening on shelves soaring right up to the ceiling. Yves Cuinet explains: “The Comté is a fruity, hard cheese with taste ranging from mild to piquant, depending on production time and length of maturation. Our cheese belongs to the best types of cheese in France.” A cheese round weighs 40 kg and must be rubbed on both sides with sea salt daily. In Flagey, a master cheesemaker and a deputy cheesemaker take care of cheese production. The eventual quality of the cheese depends on their skill and sensitivity – and on the milk. When the cheese plant’s small storage cellar is full, rounds are brought into the vaults of an old castle. There, they mature for between 4.5 and 40 months. In the small village shop, a kilogram of this cheese can be bought for around euro 10. But in other regions of France, and on foreign markets, retail prices can quickly reach euro 30. 7
