Unteregger - Mühlbach / Vals (BZ)

We first met Manuel Zingerle nearly two years ago when he timidly appeared at Valsana with a small sampling of his goat cheeses. In that initial meeting, we glimpsed the seed of an interesting project, but still in a nascent stage. We let some time pass and, as we almost always do, we visited him at his farm in Val Pusteria, in Vals (BZ) - perhaps it was fate? The business is a mountain farm, an agricultural entity, a system consisting of forest, meadow, barn, hayloft, and often a dairy. The farm in question is called Unteregger, literally "Farm under the corner", it is located at 1200 meters above sea level and covers about 4 hectares, not huge compared to other farms. Three to four people work there: Manuel's father takes care of the barn, his mother of the sales, Manuel makes the cheese, and his partner helps him with administrative tasks when she can. The family barn has always been dedicated to dairy cows, but since 2008, by Manuel's choice, it has been converted to raising Saanen goats, known to be among the best milk producers in the caprine world. The barn is small, with about 160 heads, of which a hundred are in lactation, fed with hay and cereals, partly self-produced on a rented meadow plot and partly bought from local farms. The births are desynchronized to always have a bit of milk even in the winter months. The milk production amounts to about 300 liters a day, at the peak of lactation in late spring, and is entirely used raw in the dairy adjacent to the barn. The milk is milked twice a day, stored in a small refrigerated tank, and processed almost every day depending on the need. A curiosity: the milk is used to make raw milk tommes and tomettes with a washed rind, while the residual whey from processing is used to make natural cosmetics