At more than 1,000 meters of altitude, the day of Covadonga Fernandez (Gamoneu de Onís, 1959). The landscape lends itself idyllic. The Picos de Europa as a backdrop, the green of the prau of mountain shines in the spring sun and the cows, of alpine brown breed, graze with the calm of a place where time seems to have stopped decades ago.
In Majada Gumartini, almost like a postcard, Covadonga lives for five months. From late spring to the first snow, watching and milking cows, goats and sheep with whose milk he will give life to the gamoneu of the port, the best paid cheese in Spain.
Blue, lightly smoked and made from the milk of animals that graze on these almost alpine meadows, the diet of the little Noah’s Ark that Covadonga has been jealously guarding for 41 years is the secret of success. “They only eat grass, meadow and flowers. I don’t think or anything else,” he explains at the foot of the flock.
Hard work – so much so that there are only four gamoneu producers left in the port—and to whom he does not want his children to be devoted. “When you’re young you don’t think about it, but then the years go by and you realize the important moments that happened in life,” he warns.
So, He denies his offspring —two daughters and a son— from taking charge of this herd that binds these 1,000 meters of altitude to Covadonga from June until “the snow throws us in November”. In between, missing weddings, baptisms, communions, birthdays, vacations and all kinds of celebrations.
“The two daughters work in the valley, making gamoneu of the valley, which is less sacrificed,” he says. In fact, one of them is the president of the Gamoneu Denomination of Origin, that protects both the cheeses from the valley and those from the port.
How to make gamoneu cheese from the port
Alpine brown cow, Carranzana sheep (the same breed with which Idiazábal is made) and mantrine goat make up the hosts with which Covadonga can make the Gamoneu cheese from the port. One of the keys, he explains, It is in the balance of the milks. In total, a herd of about 400 heads, mostly cattle (about 250) and to a lesser extent sheep (about 100) and goats (about 70), which Covadonga and his brother guard.
“The Gamoneu DO requires that there be at least 10% of each milk in each cheese, but when it is in season, what we use the most is sheep’s milk and goat’s milk“, he comments. Fattier and tastier, they give the cheeses a differentiating factor, something that begins to get complicated when the season progresses.
“The cow is more regular, it gives more milk and takes longer, that is why it is normal for the latest cheeses to have more cow’s milk,” he says. From raw milk, the gamoneu cheeses from the port They require daily milking of the animals. Automated for cows and manual for goats and sheep.
“You can’t put machines on goats or sheep because they are so few that it doesn’t pay off,” says Covadonga. In addition, he tells that part of the secret of the gamoneu of the port is in the rest. “We milk at night We put the milk together in the curdling vat and leave it to rest for a day, so that the lactic ferments begin to work,” he adds.
From there, they give shape —between one kilo and eight kilos, although their favorite formats are the largest ones—. “They take longer to mature, but they come out richer and have more aroma,” he considers. After salting and give them a light smoke with embers of beech splinters, the cheese is ready for its rest in caves.
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These pieces spend the night for more than two months near the Lakes of Covadonga, in a small and overlapping cave that he rents from the town hall where they mature. Here they will connect with the fungus penicillium roquefortii that will slightly tint the outermost part of the cheese blue, not as expansive as happens in the case of Cabrales cheese, for example with the most famous of Asturian cheeses.
A well paid cheese
At 45 euros per kilo they pay Covadonga their gamoneu from the port, a price that he considers fair and enough to live on, bearing in mind that he barely produces about 18 kilos of cheese a day, which is usually equivalent to a pair of nine-kilo wheels, for which he needs around 80 liters of milk, in depending on the type of milk. Far from the between 22 and 25 euros to which the gamoneu of the valley is usually paid.
This makes the port gamoneu the cheese with the best paid denomination of origin in Spain. It is not easy, obviously, and the brevity of the season and the harsh conditions well justify the price of a product that later lands in the most illustrious dairies in the Principality, but also in Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia.
“It’s well paid, but it’s a complicated job. In season it may we get up at five in the morning and go to bed at one, and then there are very hard days“, assures Covadonga. He speaks of June and July, when some fog or some summer storm muddies the meadows.
The green Asturian meadow becomes a minefield where The feet sink and the hoofed hooves of the herd get stuck, moment when you have to help them out of a mud that sticks up to the kneecaps. “We spent the whole summer with rubber boots,” claims Covadonga.
The Wolf: Enemy at the Gates
Far away is the impression of bicoca that some might think when hearing the money paid per kilo. A third factor is added to the family’s resignation and the harshness of a seasonal job, which also justifies why the gamoneu of the port is on the verge of extinction despite the fact that there are a couple of young processors (under thirty years of age) in the area and another couple outside of the DO that make a similar cheese.
“They say there are five wolves in the area, but the reality is that there are more than twenty and surely there are more than seventy“, emphasizes Covadonga, who still flaunts his good humor during our visit, supported by the chefs Nacho Manzano (from the two-star Casa Marcial, in nearby Arriondas) and Pedro Sanchez (a Michelin star in the Jaen Bagá).
“The wolf is no longer afraid of people. Before he was, but now he has lost it because you know you can’t do anything“, clarifies Covadonga, who lives face to face with a perpetual threat that threatens not only his livelihood, but also a certain vital joy.
“I always end up saying that next year I will not return,” he adds. “It’s an animal that you raise, you love, like any you can have, you care for them, it was your life and when you arrive and see him dead, like that, your morale drops to your feet“, he comments sadly.
He puts numbers on it. “In 2020 it killed 48 animals between sheep and goats. In a ‘good’ year, maybe only 15 or 16 animals kill you,” he quantifies.
Between the threat of the wolf, the hardness of the work and the lack of relief, perhaps the gamoneu of the port has its days numbered. In the meantime, let’s enjoy a treasure from Asturian Landscape Cuisine that continues to put green and granite on the table with bites that taste like heaven.
Images | Asturias Tourism / Landscape Cuisine
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