« Go back New records for Valtellina Dop cheese
After the excellent results of 2023, the production of Valtellina Casera DOP has also started strong in 2024. The production season for Bitto has just begun, and the results already seem excellent. The rains have favored the growth of grass (and therefore hay) for dairy cows, and the snow has melted in time to make way for the pastures.
The president of the Consortium, Marco Deghi, commented on the production of Bitto: “There would be much more demand for Bitto, but it’s not easy to find people willing to carry on the tradition of alpine pastures, and the availability of cheesemakers outside family traditions”. The goal is to continue working to increase quality and create margins, also by communicating how challenging it is to produce this cheese: “There are 45 operational alpine pastures this year. They will host about 3,000 dairy cows and 300 goats on over 11,000 hectares of pastures and meadows to renew the ancient summer ritual of transhumance and create one of the oldest raw milk cheeses in Italy, produced from late June to September in small dairies in the provinces of Sondrio and Lecco (and in some neighboring municipalities of Val Brembana) at altitudes between 1,400 and 2,300 meters”.
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