Among the farms awarded in the 1st year of Farma živá, we cannot leave out Farma pod Čerešňou. It focuses on making excellent sheep's milk products.
Farma pod čerešňou is a likeable farm in the pleasant setting of the Krupina Plateau. It is a family farm with Slovak – French roots, and the French farming line dates back as far as 1667. The farm carries the spirit of both cultures, along with a deep understanding of what agriculture means for the Carpathian landscape, summed up in the words: “The biodiversity of the landscape depends on farmers. When I pay for cheese, I also pay for a good, beautiful, flowering meadow. Because small farmers are not supported, they have no time to look after the landscape.”
Mr Emillien Besson farms with his wife on about 20 ha, used mainly for grazing sheep and making hay. They keep the French Lacaune breed. The sheep stay out on pasture at night as well and are kept in two flocks: milking ewes and young animals (born this year). They make their own hay, except for baling. On 1 ha they grow sown fodder crops. The farm's land is hilly and it is farmed very gently. On the arable land they also use no-till farming, mulching and green manuring. The farm also has a number of trees - mature solitary walnut, cherry and apple trees. The owners plan to plant more.
They are gradually trying to reduce deworming to the bare minimum. That is one of the reasons they are introducing rotational (holistic) grazing, which means that once a small area has been grazed in a short time, the sheep move on to a new spot. Horses then graze it after them. The pasture is then left to recover. They sell the wool for processing in Senohrad. By selectively using less toxic antiparasitics and lowering their doses, they help preserve local biodiversity.
Young ewes and rams go off to gardens to graze them. A trained border collie keeps an eye on the flock. The farmer, the dog and the sheep each have defined roles: for the sheep, the dog is “the bad guy” and the farmer “the good guy”.
The farm takes a thoughtful approach to processing produce not only from its livestock but also from the garden. Healthy vegetables grown in various kinds of beds (raised beds, in-ground beds) are fed with organic manure from the sheep and poultry bedding. They try to catch every drop of water on the land, so there are also 3 ponds fed from the roofs of the buildings.
The French spirit shows in the making of aged cheeses. The cheeses are made in the farm's own cheese room and mature for 2.5 months in dry boxes. They are sold at the farm gate along with yoghurt, milk and young rams intended for gardens. It must be said that these are genuinely high-quality dairy products with high added value.
Farma pod Čerešňou is small in area, but a very interesting farm in terms of its setting and its approach to keeping animals and growing vegetables. Its owners stand out above all for their tenacity and determination to go their own way. Despite the owner's disability, it is remarkable to see the determination to run the farm and the ability to produce sheep's milk products not just for their own use but on a larger scale. Their search for their own path to exceptional produce, as well as their creative solutions, truly deserve recognition.
