Alice dreams of goat cheese

On a warm morning of July, I drove my car up to the Prealps, in the province of Vicenza to meet Alice from the factory farm Grattanuvole ('scratchclouds' in English). I was about to spend the morning with her learning everything about goat breeding and cheese. I was clearly excited by the visit since I had such heard good stories about the farm and had tried also their yoghurt made from raw milk. I must admit that so far I haven't been such a goat dairies' fan but after tasting the yoghurt I had to at least give the goat milk another shot. As a matter of fact, it was absolutely delicious.

The story of Alice is the one of a woman who believes that only working hard you can make your dreams come true. Establish and run a farm with goats and make cheese every other day is certainly not the easiest of the tasks nor the most monetary rewarding job. Goats need to be milked twice a day every day, no exception. However, we all know that the strongest of the passions can lead us very far. Indeed Alice's path began quite some time ago.

Alice’s first encounter with goats happened at the same time when she got her degree in veterinary medicine in 2005. She tought that the goats could offer her an interesting niche in the job market and also the possibility to provide for the lack of veterinary assistance in the province. Not long time after, 3 goats were welcomed at Alice’s parents’ farm. These three ladies still belong to the breeding and when we talk about them Alice giggles showing a special affection for them. She explains that when they began to breed milk goats she found herself totally captured by the strong yet controversial personality of these animals. They are stubborn and sweet, smart and devoted but never entirely tamed by the man.

Slowly the idea of a dairy factory popped up in Alice’s mind hand in hand with the plan to establish a cattleshed and enlarge the size of the cattle. Several dairy courses and educational trips to dairymaids located in the North of Italy and abroad have come after. Alice was not alone but met the good company of another young dairymaid engaged in the process of learning how to make goat cheese. Traditionally, the dairymaid is a female job. The reason is that the goat milk is fragile compared to cow's milk and in order to make cheese one need to apply less strength to the curd. However surprisingly the best menthorship and advice came from a male dairymaid from Piedmont, who was willing to share with the two young women his skills and knowledge about the art of making goat cheese.

Trial after trial, the first edible cheese was a big achievement for Alice. It has been a continuous learning-by-doing process, enriched by discoveries that has piled up over the seasons- she explains. Milk is, indeed, a live material. Flavours change according to the way the goats are fed, meaning if they eat what the woods offer or inside the farm; the way the dairymaid works the milk; the different times of breast-feeding and the change of seasons.

Alice’s learning experiences are only one side of the long path to establish and run the factory farm. Of course, at some point confronting the Italian bureaucracy became inevitable. The neverending amounts of papers to fill in and health inspections to the premises became daily duties. Alice assures that establishing herself as an entrepreneur in this specific field wasn't as easy as many people tried to discourage her from her venture. She admits that determination has definitely been the key to survive that time when results were still in the form of hope. A big part of the acknowledgments surely go to her family for the support and help. 

Nowadays, she breeds about 30 milk goats and produce cheese 3 times a week. The range of products made by Grattanuvole includes amongst others pure and flavoured caciotta, robiola, paneer, ricotta, a variety of aged cheeses and yoghurt. All made locally from goats bred with love and care!

In the next post, you can read more about the production of goat cheese and Alice’s special cheeses.
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