Slow Food Time

From Peul milk...
Senegal - It is said that the Peul people have “a milk kinship with their animals”. Awa Diallo is a producer from the Terra Madre community of Peul herders living in Senegal’s Louga region and a member of the new Suxaali Sunnu Goxx convivium. She looks after a herd of 80 cattle and has been producing milk since 1973, the year she took over the herd of her husband, whose family had also been farmers for several generations. The Peul people have a particularly strong relationship with these animals because they provide their food needs and are a central feature of their lives.
Although their husbands or sons often own the animals, it is the women who deal with the milk. It is said that when they drink milk, Peul people can recognize the cow which has produced it. Awa tells us about the various types of milk from her region:
“Here in Senegal there are three types of milk. Firstly there is milk from cows grazing in the pastoral zone (Senegalese Ferlo) which extends from Louga to St Louis. Secondly there is milk produced by cattle in the Dakar region. The third type of milk is from cows grazing in the southeast of the country. This milk has more fat so it can be made into an excellent cheese. It is also used to make butter”. Awa goes on to say that the milk with the best taste comes from “pregnant cows still suckling a calf. It is called Kosam Mopi Diegome in Peul, or milk with six ears—from the cow, the calf and the one still to be born. The milk is sweet and creamy. Various types of feed can change the taste of the milk, particularly in the period before harvesting, or soudure, when cattle are given purchased vegetable produce to make up for the lack of grass during drought conditions. Peppers and melons, for example, give milk a fragrant aroma.”
Helped by Terra Madre, Awa and her association have learned to promote their products. “I visited the Salone del Gusto and saw so many products. At Terra Madre I met new partners and exchanged information. We really learned a lot.”

Awa is doing a lot of work with other communities in her neighborhood. She is pleased because herders are beginning to organize events even at a regional level. At the beginning of August the first fair in Tambacounda was held on the theme “Local milk: posta in gioco and opportunity”.

Awa Diallo, awapoulo@yahoo.fr
Click here to read a detailed study about Peul milk (in French) by Sada-Mamadou Ba (ethnologist from CEMAF, Centre d'Etudes des Mondes Africains).

...to elk milk
Russia - Although the domestication of hoofed species such as the elk is very rare, the Russians and Scandinavians have a long tradition in farming these animals for milk. As elks are solitary animals they cannot be kept in sheds and must be allowed to move freely in their environment. There are currently only two farms producing elk milk in the whole Russian Federation: the Elk Farm of Kostroma and another in the Pechora-Ilych nature reserve in the autonomous Komi republic. In these farms an adult animal spends most of its time grazing in the forest but pregnant females always return to the farm to give birth, where they are milked for the three to five months while they produce milk. A female produces from 300 to 500 liters of milk per season, much less than the average yield of a cow. But elk milk is of excellent quality, with a high fat content (12-14%), and a good source of vitamins and microelements which allows it to resist freezing. It is not as sweet as cow's milk.

...and dromedary milk
Mauritania - Camel's milk is the most important and complete food for the nomads of the Sahara, who often survive on it as their only food for weeks on end. It has become the basis for a long-standing tradition among communities living in these areas. Zrig is a refreshing drink based on fermented milk diluted with water which is offered everywhere in Saharan Africa, served from a calebasse, a gourd used as a communal vessel which is passed from person to person.
Camel's milk has excellent nutritional properties: not only is it the main source of vitamin C for millions of people who rarely eat fruit or vegetables, it also has much lower percentages of cholesterol and fat than cow's milk (in Mauritania, for example, the fat content is between 2.5 and 3.5% according to the season). Its percentage of sugar (lactose) is low, while its mineral content is high; and it does not coagulate naturally so is easily digested.
Mohamed Ould Tati, a dromedary herder from Mauritanian Terra Madre community, tells us that dromedary milk is very light and able to cure diabetes. He states that "at one time dromedary milk wasn’t drunk in Senegal because people thought it was only for marabou storks. Now it is drunk and appreciated for its health benefits. It isn't like cow or sheep milk... I think it is more like mother's milk."

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Blind Milk Tasting
Australia - James Dorey is a cheesemaker and member of Slow Food Perth. His description of a recent milk tasting illustrates the complexity and variety of different milks – just as exist in wine. Flavour and aroma can be clear indicators of the cow’s diet and how the milk has been produced and treated...

	The winter showers had moved on, and it was warm and sunny as I entered the Slow Food Perth marquee at the Mundaring Truffle Festival. A pleasant aroma of leaf-mould and damp earth greeted my nostrils. I was introduced to my co-panellists - Daran Thompson of Avon Valley Dairy, Sophie Zalokar, chef and food writer, olive oil maven Jill James, Anthony Georgeff, editor of Spice Magazine and Matt O’Donoghue of Abstract Gourmet, and with no further ado, was presented with six samples of milk. Judging of milk can be a little daunting, compared to wine for example. Humans are mostly composed of water, and I believe we are “wired” to make fine distinctions of flavour and aroma a bit more easily with aqueous solutions than with fats. The flavour and body of milk is evaluated in much the same way as wine, with a lot of the emphasis being on the back of the palate. Since milk is essentially an emulsion of water, proteins, sugars and fat, we have to be a bit careful not to let it “swamp” our taste-buds if we want to make an objective comparison, so spitting, unattractive as it might be, is more or less essential."

	James Dorey Click here to To read the entire story on the Terra Madre site.

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Food Traditions

Ash Yogurt in Gourds...
From a Kenyan community of herders and producers

Kenya - Farmers and herders, they are tall and thin with narrow faces and large black eyes. When a guest visits their community, they dance and sing wearing traditional costumes, with bright necklaces of yellow and red beads, headgear of shells and white feathers, and rattles and goat horns tied to their calves. The name of the community—the same as the river running through their village of round mud and straw huts—is Terzoi, which means “white feather”, their traditional decoration.
Milk from local cattle (a cross between local breeds and zebu) and goats is used to produce fresh milk, butter and an unusual ash yogurt.
The yogurt is made by pouring milk into a long hollow gourd where it is left for at least three days. The whey is then drained, the container closed and regularly shaken. When the yogurt is ready ash the from a local cromwo tree is then added, which has antiseptic properties, adds an aromatic note to the flavor and colors the yogurt a distinctive pale grey.
Four representatives from this community—soon to be a Slow Food Presidium—will be in Italy from September 13 to 21 to take a training course on animal and milk hygiene. They will visit a number of artisan yogurt and cheese producers as well as attending Cheese, where they will have the opportunity to describe their ancient culture.

Production Area: West Pokot, west Kenya
Community coordinators:
Jane Karanja
Jane_karanja2001@yahoo.com
Peter Namianya,
Penami78@yahoo.com

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Food for Thought

The Story with Lactose

The lactose molecule, which enables the human body to absorb calcium, can only pass through the walls of the small intestine if decomposed by an enzyme called lactase.
This enzyme serves no other function, so it is superfluous once an infant is weaned from its mother’s milk and its production stops in all mammalian species except one. The exception, of course, is humans. Large numbers of people remain able to digest lactose in milk even when adult. However this is the result of a long process of adaptation and still today does not apply to everyone. This was discovered by nutritionists in the 1960s when they realized that while Western people with a long tradition of pastoral farming (mainly in America and Europe) could drink liters of milk a day, people living in other countries would suffer problems. In fact the ability to digest milk as an adult is an exception: 65% of the world's population is intolerant. High levels of tolerance have been recorded only among northern Europeans and white North Americans (approaching 90%) and nomadic pastoralists in Africa (80% tolerant). Levels of intolerance among non-pastoralist Africans reaches 90%, with the level approaching 100% among the Igbo and Yoruba people of Nigeria).

Source: John Reader, Africa. A Biography of the Continent, 1999, Vintage.

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Can all Milk be Made into Cheese?

Milk has had a significant effect on human development, providing a cheap, healthy and nutritious food. But it has a big drawback—it is perishable. By transforming milk into cheese, human beings devised a very efficient and tasty method of preservation.
Can cheese be made from the milk of all mammals? No: for example it isn’t possible to make cheese from human milk, pig or horse’s milk etc.
To make cheese, the milk has to contain enough caseins, a particular type of protein. When rennet is added or acidity rapidly increased, the caseins precipitate, accompanied by many other substances present in milk, particularly fats: this is how curds are formed, the basis of all possible cheeses. That is why human beings, with experience gathered over millennia, learned to mainly use milk from sheep, goats, cows and buffalo. These are the species with most casein relative to total volume. Marsupials, for example, produce milk with more fat and caseins overall, but quantities are so small that they can’t be processed. On the other hand horses produce significant amounts of milk, but low in casein, so the milk can be used to make fermented drinks, which are very common in the Asian steppes, but not cheese.

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Small Producers at Risk
Romania's experience following joining the EU

Romania’s entry into the European Union was strongly desired, pursued and finally celebrated. But since January 1 2007, life has not improved for all of the country’s 20 million plus inhabitants. In particular, the requirement for small producers to comply with European regulations, an essential step if they want to legally produce and sell in Romania and the wider European market, could force them to modify their traditional production methods to such an extent that their final product is totally debased.
The situation was explained to us by the herders, the “baci” (who are responsible for making cheese in summer, though they are not the owners of the animals) and the producers of the Brânzaš de Burduf Presidium.
The government in Bucharest decided to adopt all the European regulations, conforming to a model of industrial production where there can be no exceptions, leaving no space for the small or the different. The decision was not declared or publicly explained, but a deadline of only one year was set before all producers and all types of production had to observe the European laws and regulations. Anyone not complying with the law would be unable to enter the market, as the sale of produce would only be permitted at a local level, defined as 30 kilometers around the area of production. This provision also applied to fairs and events and, in the event of violations of the law, economic penalties could be imposed which were particularly onerous for small-scale family businesses.
There are many reasons for this position. On the one hand there is a concern that Brussels will apply penalties, on the other an excessively hygienic approach is adopted (certainly not a unique occurrence in current and past European experience). There is perhaps also an awareness that choosing dialog and discussion with producers is not the easiest solution.
Yet this is the path the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity has decided to take. It has started work with the producers of the Brânzaš de Burduf Presidium to identify the traditional methods of production, organizational changes and equipment needed to ensure that products satisfy food safety requirements but are still traditional and of high quality.

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Books and Films

“Fromages entre ciel et terre” (Cheeses between Heaven and Earth)

Accompanied by evocative images and intimate portraits of herders, this book shows us the fragility of these magnificent landscapes where cheese is produced.
By Gilbert Dalla Rosa (texts) and Dominique Julien (photographs)
Language: French
Publisher: Gypaete
For further information or to purchase, click here

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The Forms of Milk. A Handbook on Cheese

This handbook on taste education is intended for consumers who want to find out more about one of the richest, most varied and stimulating food products that exist: the world of cheese
Authors: Armando Gambera, Enrico Surra
Language: Italian
Publisher: Slow Food Editore, 2003
For further information or to purchase, click here:

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Cheese. A True Story or Two

This is the first volume in the series Per mangiarti meglio, created to present Slow Food issues to a very young audience, particularly the pleasure from knowing about and tasting certain foods: cheese, chocolate, bread, vegetables and honey.
Authors: Cinzia Ghigliano and Marco Tomatis
Language: Italian
Publisher: Slow Food Editore, 2008
For further information or to purchase, click here

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DVD Foundation: Three Slow Food Presidia on the screen

Manrique and the Coffee Odyssey; Olga, Paprika and the Curly-Haired Piglet; Bitto, the Perennial Cheese are three documentaries produced in 2006 about Slow Food Presidia projects.
Director: Annamaria Gallone
For further information or to purchase, click here

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Link TV, Television Without Borders

This multimedia site contains wide-ranging video programs on sustainability issues, with a large section dedicated to food.
For further information click here

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