{"id":29676,"date":"2017-03-09T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T14:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=29676"},"modified":"2019-07-30T13:38:04","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T17:38:04","slug":"carpathian-spring-discovering-cheese-in-romanias-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/carpathian-spring-discovering-cheese-in-romanias-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpathian Spring: Discovering Cheese in Romania’s Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carpathian Spring is featured in our Spring 2017 issue<\/a>. Learn more about Romania and its cheesy dishes<\/a> and check out our dining, activity, and lodging recommendations<\/a> in the region.<\/em><\/h4>\n

To get to the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, you\u2019ll depart urban Cluj-Napoca on a crammed minibus that snakes around gorges and teeters over passes on potholed dirt roads for hours. Grassy pastures and plum orchards gradually give way to snowy peaks and craggy rocks blanketed with pine forest. Hamlets dotting the hillsides here feel eons away from Cluj\u2019s glitzy shopping malls and bustling nightlife. At first, they seem quiet.<\/p>\n

Yet Romanian villages can be louder than cities. Day and night dogs bark, roosters crow, and elderly ladies in colorful headscarves chitchat as they head to the fields, sickles slung over their shoulders.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the cacophony of hooves, as sheep, goats, and cows traipse through streets, nudged by grunting shepherds (ciobani<\/em>) as they ascend to mountain pastures. Society here has long revolved around the movement of these men, who, in search of green grass, once traversed Carpathian peaks hundreds of miles south to the Balkans and as far north as the Caucasus, spreading a distinctive mountain culture as they moved and mingled. Today they\u2019re ubiquitous in songs, paintings, and photos: lone ciobani on the mountain donning cojocs, the long sheepskin cloaks that double as beds during the nights they sleep outside in fields and forests on those seasonal journeys.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A

A rustic cheesemaking room in the st\u00e2n\u0103. Photo credit: rusu ioana\/Shutterstock.com<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Yet twenty-first-century life\u2014its border controls, private property, and strict animal welfare laws\u2014has discouraged that semi-nomadic lifestyle; only a few remaining shepherds still venture far. In winter most live in valley villages and then spend summers high in the surrounding mountains in st\u00e2n\u0103s<\/em>\u2014huts made of old wood with thatched roofs. There they herd and milk fellow villagers\u2019 animals, crafting a sheep\u2019s milk cheese called ca\u015f<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They do it without pasteurization or shiny equipment; milk flows from animals into wooden buckets, ready to be coagulated with lamb rennet and cut into curds with rustic wooden tools. After forming balls of curd, the shepherds slice them into pieces and knead them back together\u2014a stretching practice with historical ties to Balkan kashkaval and Italian caciocavallo. Wheels of finished cheese, ranging in size from softballs to beach balls, hang in canvas cloths outside. They are ready to eat after three or four days but can be aged weeks longer on wooden planks.<\/p>\n

Ca\u015f is made throughout the Romanian mountains. In summer you\u2019ll see giant wheels perched on little tables on the side of the highway or in rural markets, alongside other treats produced with sheep\u2019s, cow\u2019s, or goat\u2019s milk, or a blend of milks, from the st\u00e2n\u0103: fluffy urd\u0103<\/em>, a whey cheese, and fresh golden unt<\/em> (butter). You\u2019ll find gritty, pasty br\u00e2nz\u0103 de burduf<\/em>: ca\u015f chopped into tiny pieces, mixed with salt, and then placed in a sheep\u2019s stomach\u2014or, in the southwestern mountains, a tube of fir bark\u2014to age. Gamy and pungent, these cheeses are unlike anything else. After tasting them, even the most worldly turophiles will be left wondering: Why didn\u2019t we hear about Romanian cheese sooner?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Homemade

Homemade cheese and butter at Pensiunea Anca. Photo credit: Molly McDonough.<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

A Hidden History<\/h3>\n

When English novelist Bram Stoker imagined a setting for a vampire castle, his thoughts turned to the thick fog so common in rugged Romanian highlands. Those \u201cgreat masses of greyness,\u201d he wrote in Dracula<\/em>, \u201cthrew into strange relief the ghost-like clouds which amongst the Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleys.\u201d His 1897 novel would bring fame to \u201cone of the wildest and least known parts of Europe,\u201d a region with a mystique that largely came from its unfamiliarity. Unlike the well-trodden ranges of Europe\u2019s west, these mountains were remote, their dense woodlands home to the continent\u2019s greatest density of bears and wolves.<\/p>\n

Behind that mystique lies a violent history. For thousands of years a string of conquerors (Romans, Austro-Hungarians, Ottomans) vied for control of Romania\u2019s three historic regions: Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia. In the Carpathians that divided them, isolation was a survival strategy. After World War II even Nicolae Ceau\u015fescu\u2019s infamously harsh Communist dictatorship struggled to dominate mountain communities. As peasants all over Romania were forced off their land and sent to work in giant state-run factories or farms, the highlands harbored pockets of fierce resistance.<\/p>\n

When Communism met a bloody end in the 1989 Romanian Revolution, the outside world peered into the country for the first time in decades\u2014and found it in shambles. And while Ceau\u015fescu\u2019s dictatorship had been oppressive, the transition to capitalism was also grim; as government farms throughout the country collapsed, families returned to the tiny plots of land they\u2019d owned generations earlier and resumed subsistence farming. The agricultural system was fragmented. There was no public or private investment in technology and little opportunity for economic growth. When it finally joined the European Union (EU) in 2007, Romania was one of the most impoverished member states.<\/p>\n

A close examination of the dairy sector highlights the consequences of a messy capitalist transition. Soon after Communism\u2019s fall, companies moved in from Western Europe, built factories, and started churning out mass-produced cow\u2019s milk cheeses. \u201cToday most big cheese producers [in Romania] are not Romanian,\u201d says Felix Arion, director of AgroTransilvania Cluster<\/a>, a Cluj-Napoca-based nonprofit that works to improve market opportunities for small producers. Focused on an economy of scale, \u201cthese German or Dutch companies are not interested in making traditional cheese.\u201d And those mountain cheeses, the ca\u015f and the urd\u0103 made in dilapidated huts? Unable to scale up, reach urban markets, and conform to European regulations, the future of cheesemaking shepherds has become increasingly uncertain.<\/p>\n

New Europeans<\/h3>\n

As one crosses into Romania from the west, the sprawling crops of a mostly flat Hungary give way to a patchwork of hillside homesteads, each boasting diverse crops, orchards, hay bales, grapevines, roaming chickens, and some livestock. With an average farm size of about five acres\u2014compared to Hungary\u2019s 21, or Germany\u2019s 135\u2014it\u2019s clear that subsistence agriculture still reigns here. That might be an obstacle to modernization, but it\u2019s not all bad news; in recent years environmentalists have praised Romania\u2019s \u201chigh nature value\u201d grasslands. Lacking access to fertilizers, chemicals, and modern machinery, farmers here have sustained the continent\u2019s most botanically diverse hay meadows\u2014a landscape that in most other parts of Europe has been lost.<\/p>\n

And joining the EU has equipped Romania with some new tools to preserve that biodiversity\u2014 such as funding for rural development projects that help protect and promote traditional foods. Some of those resources have been channeled toward adopting geographical indications, the system that certifies and protects cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano<\/a> and Gruy\u00e8re<\/a>. Getting the most exclusive label, a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), requires proof of a food\u2019s uniqueness and its historical ties to a region. Ultimately the mark can lead to prestige that helps artisan producers survive. Last year Romania celebrated its very first PDO for a crumbly mountain cheese called Telemea de Ib\u0103ne\u015fti, which is brined in saltwater from a local mine.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Cheeses

Cheeses at the market, including bark-wrapped br\u00e2nz\u0103 and wheels of ca\u015f. Photo credit: Florin Cnejevic\/ Shutterstock.com.<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One PDO product might pale in comparison to Italy\u2019s 165 and France\u2019s 98, but luckily there are countless unique Romanian cheeses with potential, says Arion. He cites the cow\u2019s milk washed-rind n\u0103sal<\/em>, aged in a Transylvanian cave, where it develops a unique bacteria-coated surface. There\u2019s also br\u00e2nz\u0103 de burduf \u00een coaj\u0103 de brad<\/em>, made from chopped and salted ca\u015f that\u2019s stuffed in a long tube of Carpathian fir bark and aged for up to a year.<\/p>\n

The main challenge in securing a PDO\u2014or simply getting a cheese into the supermarket\u2014is a lack of infrastructure. To build one, small producers need to work together. But the trauma of communist collectivization has left a lingering fear of association. \u201cWhen people hear the word \u2018cooperative,\u2019 they run away,\u201d says Radu Rey, an advocate for Romanian mountain communities who founded the Carpathian Development Research Institute.<\/p>\n

But in the Carpathians, where villagers have long merged animals for high-altitude herding, there\u2019s hope. In a sunny pasture above the village of F\u0103rca\u015fa, I meet Costel Bondrea, president of a local shepherd\u2019s association. For its first five years, the group had a hard time recruiting members. But in 2008 he teamed up with the nongovernmental organization Heifer International<\/a> to offer an incentive: Farmers who joined would get a free sheep. \u201cPeople started to notice we could collect milk, we had an office, and they came to us for support,\u201d Bondrea says. When the organization started leasing communal pastures in 2009 and making a profit, membership skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re celebrating the opening of the shepherds\u2019 new st\u00e2n\u0103. Unlike most others in Romania, this one has electricity, running water, and enough space to satisfy EU regulations. The ca\u015f made here will be packaged under the new De la Munte<\/em> (\u201cof the mountain\u201d) label, ready for sale in urban grocery stores. Because six different associations from around the Carpathians own the brand, pooling their resources will help expand its reach. As for the cheese\u2019s commercial appeal, Bondrea is optimistic: \u201cPeople see the label, and they know that it comes from the mountains, so it\u2019s natural,\u201d he says. \u201cThey know animals here only eat mountain grass\u2014that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sheep

Sheep owners milk their animals at a springtime “Measurement of the Milk” fest near Cluj. The yield determines how much of the Alpine cheese each household will receive during the summer grazing season. Photo credit: Oana Raluca\/Shutterstock, Inc.<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Visitors Welcome<\/h3>\n
\n
\"Irina

Irina Bozai serves breakfast in Maramure\u015f. Photo credit: Molly McDonough.<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Despite projects like Bondrea\u2019s, 98 percent of the sheep dairy market in Romania remains informal. Most cheeses made in the mountains are for immediate family or to trade among villagers\u2014and not by tax-paying businesses. As a result, \u201cnot all Romanian traditional products have market potential,\u201d says Arion, AgroTransilvania Cluster director.<\/p>\n

The best advice for tourists, then? Stop by someone\u2019s kitchen for the most authentic wedges and wheels. Luckily some of the EU funding that went to support rural development has been channeled into bolstering agritourism. Now that hundreds of farms have opened spare rooms to guests, the Carpathian lifestyle is more accessible than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the mountains there\u2019s an aging population with less education and very low income,\u201d says Iulia Muresan, who studies the socioeconomic effects of agritourism at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca. \u201cBut tourism represents a chance: It has offered employment, especially for women, while preserving traditional farming.\u201d Staying in Romanian houses, \u201cyou can learn something new,\u201d she continues, \u201c[such as] how homemade sausage or cheese is made. Maybe you can help make the cheese, preserve fruits and vegetables, and make wine.\u201d Organic without being certified and grass-fed because the animals have always eaten grass, the wares grown or made on these little farms lack labels but burst with flavor. So often, I find myself marveling at the way old women can turn out culinary masterpieces using banged-up pans, dull knives, and tiny propane stoves.<\/p>\n

One evening I\u2019m sipping some homemade plum brandy with Vasile Lenuta in his farmstay near the mountain village of Sadova. He greets me like most Romanians I meet: with reservation and skeptical curiosity. Not yet accustomed to tourism and still grappling with a traumatic past, locals often wonder why an American would venture here. But before long, Lenuta\u2019s enthusiasm shines through; as I nibble on a plate of balmo\u015f<\/em>, a porridge-like mixture of polenta and his homemade ca\u015f, he watches with anticipation and pride. Soon he\u2019s waxing poetic about Romanian sheep and mountain grasses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people here in Sadova, they live to be 90 years old. Or longer! Do you know why?\u201d he asks. After refilling our glasses, he leans forward and points conspiratorially to the heaping platter that sits between us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because we are always eating this balmo\u015f,\u201d Lenuta says, \u201cand it\u2019s full of cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feature photo credit: egyjanek\/Shutterstock.com<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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