Palestinians try cheese-making
Dion Nissenbaum MCT
Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: Perspectives
It's not exactly the romantic Italian countryside, but this tiny Palestinian sheep farm has become the unlikely headquarters for an unusual culinary experiment.
A small group of Italian agronomists is trying to transform this scruffy hilltop into the Palestinian Tuscany by setting up the West Bank's first Italian cheese factory.
Defying the skeptics _ and there are many _ the Golden Sheep cheese factory has established a small but growing business selling higher-end Italian pecorino, smoked ricotta, pear-shaped scamorza, a soft cheese and, on an especially fortuitous day, maybe some mozzarella.
The thought of setting up an Italian cheese factory in the West Bank would seem fantastical from the start.
Why train Palestinians to produce an expensive foreign cheese that few Palestinians could afford _ if they liked the taste?
"They think it's strange, but it's delicious," said Kamal Daher, one of three Palestinian farmers trained in the art of Italian cheese-making. "OK, it's an acquired taste."
Italian agronomist Stefano Baldini hatched the idea more than a decade ago as a way of helping Palestinian farmers and the anemic West Bank economy.
Baldini admits that Golden Sheep is not for everyone. The comparably expensive Italian cheese is made for middle- and upper-class Palestinians who have lived abroad, as well as the endless stream of international aid workers, diplomats and journalists now living in the region.
"We knew from the beginning that this kind of cheese would not be for the people in general," said Baldini, who spearheaded the idea as local director of Ucodep, an independent Italian group that sponsors small-development projects around the world.
At local tastings, Palestinians unaccustomed to hard, sharp, Italian cheeses tend to find it unpalatable.
"You had to see the faces of the people when they tasted it for the first time," said Matteo Crosetti, a Ucodep project coordinator in the West Bank.
A small group of Italian agronomists is trying to transform this scruffy hilltop into the Palestinian Tuscany by setting up the West Bank's first Italian cheese factory.
Defying the skeptics _ and there are many _ the Golden Sheep cheese factory has established a small but growing business selling higher-end Italian pecorino, smoked ricotta, pear-shaped scamorza, a soft cheese and, on an especially fortuitous day, maybe some mozzarella.
The thought of setting up an Italian cheese factory in the West Bank would seem fantastical from the start.
Why train Palestinians to produce an expensive foreign cheese that few Palestinians could afford _ if they liked the taste?
"They think it's strange, but it's delicious," said Kamal Daher, one of three Palestinian farmers trained in the art of Italian cheese-making. "OK, it's an acquired taste."
Italian agronomist Stefano Baldini hatched the idea more than a decade ago as a way of helping Palestinian farmers and the anemic West Bank economy.
Baldini admits that Golden Sheep is not for everyone. The comparably expensive Italian cheese is made for middle- and upper-class Palestinians who have lived abroad, as well as the endless stream of international aid workers, diplomats and journalists now living in the region.
"We knew from the beginning that this kind of cheese would not be for the people in general," said Baldini, who spearheaded the idea as local director of Ucodep, an independent Italian group that sponsors small-development projects around the world.
At local tastings, Palestinians unaccustomed to hard, sharp, Italian cheeses tend to find it unpalatable.
"You had to see the faces of the people when they tasted it for the first time," said Matteo Crosetti, a Ucodep project coordinator in the West Bank.
Article last update: 5/5/09 at 7:42 PM CST
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