Pasture and transhumance: cheeses that mark them
The summer climb to the high pastures, the autumn descent, and the cheeses made up there.
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of herds between summer and winter pastures. In the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, the Himalaya and the Atlas, herders take cows, sheep, goats and yaks up to high grass in early summer and bring them down in autumn. Many great cheeses were born up there: Beaufort, Salers, oscypek, the shepherds' cheeses of the Pyrenees and the churpi of Himalayan herders. UNESCO recognised transhumance as intangible cultural heritage in 2019.
Going up and coming down
The climb in late spring and the descent in September and October are events in mountain villages. In Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria and the French Alps, the autumn descent, désalpe or Almabtrieb, brings cows down through the villages crowned with flowers and bells, with markets and cheese stalls. In the Polish Tatras, the spring and autumn redyk marks the sheep's journey to and from the high pastures, and in Romania, Sâmbra oilor marks the flocks' departure for the mountains in spring.
Cheese on the mountain
Up on the pasture, cheese is made in huts, often twice a day, in copper cauldrons over wood fires, because milk cannot easily travel down. Beaufort d'alpage and Gruyère d'alpage come from summer pasture only. Salers must be made between 15 April and 15 November, from cows at grass, in a tall wooden vat called a gerle. Bitto, from the Valtellina in Lombardy, is made only on summer pastures, and oscypek is made in shepherds' huts in the Tatras.
In the Himalaya and Central Asia
In the Himalaya, Gaddi shepherds of Himachal and Bakarwal herders of Jammu and Kashmir move their flocks to high meadows each summer, and in Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal, yak herders make butter and churpi at summer camps. Bhutan's Brokpa herders of Merak and Sakteng trade cheese and butter down to the valleys. In Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan, families move between seasonal camps and dry aaruul and kurt on the roofs of their gers and yurts.
Worth knowing
- Beaufort: Summer-pasture cheese of the Savoie
- Salers: Made in a wooden gerle from cows at grass
- Gruyère: Sold as Gruyère d'alpage when made on the alp
- Oscypek: Made in shepherds' huts in the Tatras
- Ossau-Iraty: Shepherds' cheese of the Pyrenees
- Chhurpi: Made at Himalayan summer camps
- Aaruul: Dried on the roof of the Mongolian ger
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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