Cheese dairy of the shepherds of Saint-Michel Cheese in Saint-Michel

It all started in 1981 when ten sheep farmers from the Garazi canton decided to join forces and put their milk together to make their own cheese.

Ambitious project for the time, supported by the cheese priest Pierre Harymbat, which is concretized by the construction of the Fromagerie des Bergers de Saint Michel on the mountainside, in Saint-Michel near Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, in the heart of the Basque Country.

Today, the cheese factory belongs to the second generation of associated breeders and collects the sheep's milk of 43 breeders located within a radius of 30 km, all engaged in the PDO Ossau Iraty quality approach, working exclusively with local sheep breeds (Manech Black Head, Manech Red Head, Basco-Béarnaise), well adapted, by their rusticity, to the daily grazing and to the summer transhumance in mountain.

Always a strong supporter of Ossau Iraty raw milk PDO , we have also been a driving force in the local production of organic sheep milk cheese for more than 15 years, with today 15 farms in organic farming.

To these official signs of quality are added our know-how and those of our milk producers to make the majority of our cheeses based on raw milk and thus allow the natural flora of the milk to express itself during the production.

Refining by developing a wealth of aromas that only natural diversity can provide. The red brick crust of our cheeses also develops naturally during ripening thanks to the very specific microbial flora that has inhabited our cellar since its origin.

A small cheese factory in the local dairy landscape, proud to defend its convictions and to perpetuate the tradition of the old ones.

To find on the Blog of the Guide of the Basque Country...
The Basque Country Cheese Route, an enchanting road trip around Ossau Iraty

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