Teresa was born at Olmo Gentile in 1940, gave us much information. Since she was young she helped in the production of the cheese, that besides family use, was also sold in markets of neighbouring areas.

The mother died when she was very young and she was looked after by some women of Olmo.

When she was six years old, she was very weak, because the families that put her up, didn't look after her properly, but they used her for getting money from her father.

When she finished the primary school, she moved to her cousin's home, wher she helped in the goats pasture. Two years later her cousin got married and moved to Ventimiglia taking Teresa with him. After she found a job in a San Remo dairy. She worked there for five years, but the salary was poor.

After her sister's marriage, Teresa came back to live with her family. The father worked as a sharecropper and lived with his grandfather. They were very poor and for them the death of an animals was a big misfortune.

Time passed and their financial position improsed. They icreased the number of bred cows.

In 1958 and 1960 Teresa had only one goat, so she made cheese with cow milk but it was bitter. For selling the cheese she used to go to Monastero Bormida's market on foot, taking with her a basket ("cavagnin"), full of "furmagette".

In this period she got married and went to live in a house near the place wher her father worked as sharecropper. Her parents-in-law were farmers and had got some vineyards, but in the area where she lived the land wasn't fit for vineyards, so the grapes weren't good. Her husband had a threshing machine and he also worked in many rented fields.

Twenty years ago they uprooted the vines and increased the goats number, but today this number is decreasing, because it's hard work.

Teresa told us that the "furmagette" could be produced with goat milk and cow milk together. The milk was poured in a bucket and then it was put in a small basket ("fragere") with a perforated ladle ("cazzetta"). It was in the bucket that the curd happened. The preparation of the cheese took place a cement board with a hole, that was very hard to wash and to clean. Teresa produced about five kilos of cheese a week.

Teresa also remembers that her mother-in-law filled some big cups and curdled the milk inside them with a dropper. She had seven, eight goats that she milked three times a day, because she was afraid that they could be out of their milk. She took them to graze twice a day and she made cheese on the kitchen table. Many times when Teresa went into the kitchen she found that the room was flooded with whey ("laità").

Teresa's mother-in-law came from Roccaverano, an area know for cheese production. She used only goat milk, despite her having, also some cows.

Teresa had to improve her mother-in-law's teaching because it was too old.

dei contenuti di questa pagina sono stati tratti od ispirati dal libro: "VERSO I CRU DEL ROCCAVERANO" edito da "GAL BORBA 2 LEADER".