The lady in the photo is the face of La Basia. She is my mother Elena.

Originally from a Milanese family, a city where she has lived in total a week. She graduadated in agriculture a few years ago.

From there two stories: The first half is the story of a family that grows and grows: five children ( two girls and three boys), always with her husband Antonio. The second half of the story that is connected to the hills of Garda where they have started to produce their wine with the passion and curiosity to discover the taste and history of a fascinating land rich with flavours. Within this land is full of their roots and with the years even this story grows and follows new roads and new characters. Today it is a little world made of wines and other products ( oil, grappa, honey and polenta) open to the public, animated with the presence of friends that have chosen  La Basia for their passion of horses.

 This will not be easy to introduce ourselves to everybody… We will need time. But a little at a time there will be space for everyone….

 see you soon!

Finally!!!!…Michele will say….

Even the Paladino family business looks to agrycult!!!

Hello everyone, my name is Maria Antonietta Paladino the second of three children of Concetta and Antonio Paladino, even if in the last few years people have learnt to know us as Paladino… the family of treccia cheese?!! (fortunatly people have started to get to know us and recognise us.

Our family business has always made the tipical product of my town Santa Croce di Magliano, a metropolis of about five thousand inhabitants situated between the hills of Molise.. For a few years we have opened a small cheese laboratory where mother Casara knowingly transforms milk that father Antonio lovingly collects from his cows every day from 6 a.m to 6 p.m in the evening….

When we participate in food fairs or when for the first time new customers come and see us at our sales point which is found in the countryside, a few metres distance from the cowshed where our cows of Podolica breed are kept. They are brown and speckled red, not more than 20 …. Everyone remains amazed by our product and the first thing I say is ‘the young lady has made a scarf!!!” the sceptics think she isn’t real… some ask me if they can touch her to make sure she isn’t made of plastic!!!….

Have I made you quite curious???

….I think it’s now time to talk to you about treccia cheese which is our forte. It comes from our very own laboratory; the technical definition says that the tipical treccia cheese is stringy in texture.  It  has the aspect of a white intertwined ribbon during preparation that transforms into a yellowish tone after a day or so.

I, however am going to tell you that treccia cheese is for sure one of the most special stringy cheeses that exists and for sure one of those products that one cannot learn to make in a day!!!

My mother started weaving treccia cheese watching her grandfather and her grandfather following his father and that’s how it began… I started not long ago working these weaves of stringy cheese thanks to my mother but to become good like her there are still many strings to weave!!!

Treccia cheese can be all dimensions of a few gramms in weight to a few kilograms… the biggest we have made weighed more than 10 kilograms and can be enjoyed fresh or appasita… I prefer appassita… but the real conseureurs have confermed to us that it is excellent both ways infact in october we participated in a competion called La Grolla D’oro in Valle d’ Aosta and in the stringy cheese category we won both prizes for fresh treccia cheese and passita treccia cheese!!!

Another special way to enjoy treccia cheese.. don’t forget ever to break it up as cheese tasters say it helps to bring out the organoleptic flavours of the product and I will assure you that you will taste the pure air  our cows breathe… the freshness of the grass they feed on and the geniuneness of the milk they produce….!!!

Well, what do you say? Are you ready to try the typical product of the Paladino family business?????!!!!!

The Paladino family business. Who? The family who make treccia cheese?