SLOW FOOD CHEESE 2023

Slow Food Cheese 2023 is on this week in the village of Bra, Italy. https://cheese.slowfood.it/en/
This years theme is The taste of the meadows. In the permanent meadows and mountain pastures, hundreds of different plant species coexist—a true feast for cows, goats, and sheep that consume them, transforming them into energy and producing high-quality milk. It is also a precious bounty for pollinating insects.

This is especially true of Alpine pastures which are grazed in the summer months in Switzerland, and we differentiate further between "mountain pastures" and "alpine pastures" in that Alpine are grazed only in summer and have a much greater diversity of plants. In Switzerland we also differentiate between cheese that comes from summer Alpine grazed animals - where the cheese is also made up in the same area that the animals are grazing. Whereas milk that is transported down to a nearby village or town will not give cheese with the summer alpage definition.