Cheeses of grass
- The sheep's cheese that is maturing at this time is a taste. It has been carried out on lowlands in winter and spring. Later we will taste the last remaining cheese that will be made when they have climbed to the mountains above. These will have the taste of the new herb. How important is grass? If you mention the pastor, you will believe it is of extraordinary importance. In my opinion, grazing is the most obvious cause of the difference between the different cheeses. Of course, we are talking about sheep grazing in the pastures, not those remaining in the jails.
It would be good to know which grass and plant the sheep grazing in our lands prefer. But, since food is totally cultural, that is, it is learned in a group and inherited with blood, where some plants are remembered and others are disremembered.
I don't know the herbs (Galium spp.) Sheep classified into groups. In our house there are two types of plants: spinach (Galium aparine) and yellow ciabeña (Galium verum). The name of Galium comes from the Greek word gala, milk. The yellow herb is used for the milk curd, from which the milk of the cigyl can be derived, but also because the whole plant is full of mushrooms. Verum means that the surname is authentic, it is an indicator of this gender. The surname aparine from the rough herb is its Greek name, also known as the grass of love. That has some white flourishing. The yellow herb has yellow flowers, gathered in larger groups and more eye-catching than its sisters. He wants flies and beetles on top for pollination. And what odor do flowers produce to attract flies? Smell of urine.
It's a well-known medicinal herb. Its main applications are wounds, scratches and cuts of the skin to heal and help digestion. In the latter, especially in the treatment of diseases of the urinary system, renal muelas and cystitis. Can the smell of urine tell us anything? Did Franz Kafka write the Metamorphosis so madly with that plant? Dioscorides wrote 21 centuries ago the Sonado on the Medical Topic, and in chapter 97 of Volume IV of this book states that “its root promotes the strength of the genitals.”
The yellow herb has many names in our country: garlic cloves, gravel grass, onion and homemade grass, small flap and garlic milk. In my opinion, the name of the daughter of the house is that of the calf herb, the small flap is that of the dog language (Cynoglossum cheirifolium) and an invention of the “flap milk”, the invention of one that ate cheese in Spanish or French, in which it is known as cuajaleches and caille-lait. Flap grass yes, but flap milk, right?
I propose to a cheesemaker or curdler the use of his flower as garrison. Its use throughout Tuscany was known and used by the settlers of Chester County, who were responsible for the highest category of their cheese.
It doesn't like acidic lands, preferring high pH. It is therefore an indicator of this characteristic of the terrain. Even though it's grass, it has a bulb on the subsurface that renews every year. Between May and September you will see its most striking flowers. Right now. We go with her to the milk marmite.
