Ferme

Can you imagine something so
disgusting but awesomely tasty at the same time?!
Just scroll down. You won’t need your imagination.

Mhmm. Doesn’t it look freakishly attractive? …Covered in white and green mold… Aged for several weeks and made right there – in a tiny french village farm.

Yes right. I had my first food trip/experience/degustation in a village of  Ferme du Saesserle   in Alsace region!  A super international group of girls walked for almost 2 hours uphill to see how French cheese is born, try it and (of course) buy it!

The farmer was seriously impressed that we walked that much just to visit his farm. (Apparently, not many tourists do that + it was wet, quite cold and … did I mention? Almost 3km uphill! So he agreed to show us around and tell about the process of how the real Alsatian cheese is born.

Let’s cut long story short. First of all, milk is being put in a big tank and warmed up to 30-40 Celcium degrees and kept like this for a while. Then a big mixer is being turned on and the milk is being whisked and whipped. Farmer puts some secret ingredients and voilà (!) – we have the material. Now it’s time to put it in shape, so the farmer uses various à la baking molds to form cheese into a desired piece of masterpiece.

He turns it over and over several times, till the cheese starts looking as a cheese and when it does – he puts it to dry. And keeps it stationary for several weeks. Cheese dries, gets covered by moulds (or molds, I’m not sure… probably both words are okay) and infuses all the needed scents and tastes. Mhmm. Just have a look at it down below!

So up there you see one of three cheeses we got a chance to try. This one was called Tomme and reminded me of a rich Lithuanian fermented cheese mixed with a bit of blue cheese. It was delicious, but my totally favorite was the second try of Münster (check the picture on your left). This one, had the same sharp fermented taste but was rather more similar to brie cheese and smelled a bit like yoghurt and sardines (?). I know, doesn’t sound tasty, but you have to agree that most fancy cheeses  do not smell nice… More like wet dog or dirty socks… so this one was not quite near the worst smells I’ve ever had. Haha. The third one we tried was also called Tomme but had onions and garlic inside and a different shape. Actually it had a completely different taste too, so till now I cannot understand why the both had same names… It reminded me of a white and firm cottage cheese and smelled really nice.

I bought only a piece of Münster and I feel superbly stupid about it now as I already ate almost the whole piece. It cost me less than a cup of coffee and it was fresh as a recently boomed daisy. (wow. what an epithet). Anyways, we were very happy about the trip, even though my body hurts now.

Oh, and it wasn’t all just about the cheese. We had a great walk around mountainous area! Mellow mellow Vosges mountains… you know..

Enjoy the pictures!

Knock knock . Who’s there? Just some girls craving for cheese.

Sélestat Church down there…

Au revoir 🙂 For now :**