Everyone has their own passions. I have donkey milk. It fascinates me that, together with mare’s milk, it is the milk more similar to human breast milk, more nutritious than cow’s milk, because it contains more lactose and less fat and ultimately a healthy product, historically known for its therapeutic virtues. Among other things, I did not know that until the twentieth century it was used to feed orphaned customers, debilitated children, the elderly.
Well, after this preamble, let’s get to the point. In Olmo al Brembo (Bergamo) a very young boy, Leonardo Belotti, has just been awarded the Oscar Green – the young innovation in agriculture prize promoted by Coldiretti and Campagna Amica – thanks to the donkey milk cheeses that he produces with his father. In fact, it breeds thirty donkeys, which leads to pasture on uncultivated land of the Bergamo mountains. He protects the territory and in the same way allows the donkeys to feed on fresh herbs, flowers and shrubs and thus produce a high quality milk.
Leonardo transforms it into several products, including some cheeses. He mixes the donkey’s milk, the lactation period of the animals is short, the quantity required is small, and the costs therefore necessary too high, with goat’s milk and cow’s milk of herds shepherds he knows.
The perhaps simple but innovative idea is giving the chance to the incredible properties of donkey milk to mature, creating a unique cheese.
Leonardo produces, with his donkey milk, a liqueur ideal as a digestive, sweets, ice cream and a natural and organic cosmetic line.
Where? To the Mondo Asino farm, of course …
Marta Pietroboni
marta.pietroboni@cibiexpo.it
