{"id":28384,"date":"2016-09-02T16:24:56","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T20:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=28384"},"modified":"2017-05-09T14:15:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T18:15:16","slug":"balkan-donkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/balkan-donkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Animal: Balkan Donkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout history, donkeys have helped humans with agriculture and transportation\u2014especially on the Balkan Peninsula, home to more than 70 percent of Europe\u2019s donkey population. Perhaps one of the best-known breeds is Serbia\u2019s domac\u0301i balkanski magarac<\/i> (domestic Balkan donkey)\u2014a tame member of the horse family that descended from the African wild ass, which was domesticated between 7000 and 6000 BCE in North Africa.<\/p>\n

Now Balkan donkeys are endangered; only an estimated 500 to 1,000 remained in 2014, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations<\/a>. Once people stopped using them for fieldwork, some animals were treated poorly and beaten, says Jovan Vukadinovic\u0301, farm manager at Zasavica Special Nature Reserve<\/a>, located near Serbia\u2019s northwestern border. Slobodan Simic\u0301, who founded the reserve in 1997, decided to rescue the donkeys\u2014and to make cheese from their milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2000, we started with three donkeys,\u201d says Vukadinovic\u0301, noting the herd is now about 200-strong. \u201cThe idea was to save the breed. We never thought we would make a farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appearance and Temperament<\/h3>\n

Donkeys have a reputation for stubbornness, but Vukadinovic\u0301 insists the animals always act with reason and are clever to boot. A horse, he explains, will run right off a cliff if the rider whips it hard enough, but a donkey will stop when it senses danger.<\/p>\n

These gentle, affectionate creatures are on the smaller side as far as donkeys go: Males weigh around 550 pounds and females around 440 pounds, with both sexes averaging 38 inches in height. Coat colors include gray, brown, and reddish-brown, and all have distinctive cross marks on their backs.<\/p>\n

\"AUT16_FarmAnimal_BalkanDonkey_1\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Milk and Cheese<\/h3>\n

When it comes to mealtime, these donkeys adore greens. \u201cThey eat 99 percent grass,\u201d Vukadinovic\u0301 says. \u201cThey were born to survive with very little food and water.\u201d Thankfully, donkeys at Zasavica are fed well\u2014even given apples, carrots, and corn as treats.<\/p>\n

At Zasavica, female donkeys are milked three times daily by hand. Unlike a cow\u2019s udder, which can store a lot of milk, a donkey\u2019s udder is smaller and takes time to refill. That\u2019s not even the biggest hurdle: For a donkey to let down milk, the pule<\/i> (foal) must be within sight.<\/p>\n

Since donkeys yield an extremely low quantity of milk\u2014just 10 ounces per day per animal\u2014milk is pricey. Zasavica sells seven-ounce bottles for 10 Euros (approximately $11 USD). Rich in lactose and very low in fat (between 0.6 and 1 percent), donkey milk is similar in composition to human breast milk.<\/p>\n

Because the milk lacks a sufficient amount of casein to make donkey cheese (magarec\u0301i sir<\/i>), Vukadinovic\u0301 and his team add goat\u2019s milk to the mix. Together, tangy goat\u2019s milk and sweet donkey\u2019s milk\u2014typically in a 2 to 3 ratio, respectively\u2014produce a smooth and surprisingly mild semi-soft cheese. It takes just over three gallons of donkey milk to produce one pound of cheese, and a two-ounce piece costs more than $50, making it the most expensive cheese in the world. Since Zasavica doesn\u2019t export, exotic curd lovers must travel to Serbia to sample this dairy delicacy. Pack your passports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The milk of rare Balkan donkeys makes the world\u2019s most expensive cheese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1039],"class_list":["post-28384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm-animal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFarm Animal: Balkan Donkeys - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/balkan-donkeys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Farm Animal: Balkan Donkeys\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The milk of rare Balkan donkeys makes the world\u2019s most expensive cheese.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/balkan-donkeys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-02T20:24:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-09T18:15:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/AUT16_FarmAnimal_BalkanDonkey_ftr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristin Vukovi\u0107\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kristin Vukovi\u0107\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/balkan-donkeys\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/balkan-donkeys\/\",\"name\":\"Farm Animal: Balkan Donkeys - 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