Culture Magazine

C H E E S E+ 202 2 culturecheesemag.com 45 BLAZING A TRAIL Fazenda Atalaia is on a growing trail of gourmands heading to the Serra da Mantiqueira to visit the cheesemakers, wine makers, organic farms, olive oil producers, and restaurants that have started opening in the region in the last decade or so, fuelled by an exodus of city-dwellers in search of the good life. Unlike neighboring Minas Gerais, which is famous for its cheeses and even has a couple of (PGI) Protected Geographical Indication seals, the São Paulo stretch of the Serra da Mantiqueira doesn't have a cheesemaking heritage to speak of. It's precisely that lack of tradition that has opened the door for a group of plucky cheesemakers—women, for the most part—to master the art and give their cheeses a unique identity. "All the cheese in the Serra da Mantiqueira has been created in the past 20 years," Rosana explains. "We're part of the Caminho do Queijo Paulista [an association of artisanal São Paulo producers] with 13 cheesemakers, and none of them come from a cheesemaking background. They all started to make cheese for passion." Rosana is an exception: She grew up in Minas Gerais, where cheesemaking is the norm for rural families. "I'm a farmer's daughter, and my father made cheese his whole life for the family to eat and whatever was left over he sold," she says. When she married her husband, Paulo, the couple dreamt of raising their children at Fazenda Atalaia—the coffee farm that belonged to Paulo's grandfather, and where Paulo spent vacations growing up. They fulfilled that dream as newlyweds, some 30 years ago, when they took over running the farm. Rusting machinery and raised brick patios for drying coffee cherries are still there for visitors to see, a testament to the farm's origins, which date back to the late nineteenth century. The couple also inherited a small herd of cows, whose milk was sold to a nearby dairy plant until the plant shut down, so Rosana started to make the fresh cheese she remembered from her childhood. When they got certification to supply the local supermarkets, Paulo added some Dutch cows to the local Zebu herd. There are now 300 head of cattle, all born on the farm, plus goats and sheep, which together provide milk for more than 20 types of cheese. The Tulha cheese is still their star, however. Given its international success, I'm surprised to learn that Rosana only started to experiment with aging in 2012. Without the finances to invest in a cold chamber, she and Paulo set up a room within the old granar y (called "tulha" in Portuguese, hence the name) where the coffee beans used to be stored. The 13-pound rounds of A selection of the best cheeses produced at Fazenda Atalaia Before Brazil's recent artisanal cheese revolution, consumers were put off by the Tulha's dark red rind Goats joined the team at Fazenda Atalaia in 2020

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