Today Barnaby went to visit the famous Bran castle in the Carpathian Mountains. The castle was closed, so instead he found a nice local cheese farmer to talk to.Nicu Solovastru has 300 sheep and 10 cows, which spend their summers grazing in the meadows high above the castle. He is proud of the fact he uses 100% natural products and traditional methods.
Even the cheese moulds are natural: the smoked sheep's cheeses (caşcaval fumat), which Barnaby thought tasted not unlike Polish oscypek, are shaped in wooden moulds Nicu carves himself, and the cow's cheeses (brȃnza de burduf) are aged in either large sheepskin sacks or perfectly round calves' bladders.
Barnaby wanted to buy a bladdered cheese but Anna and Matt prefered the smoked cheese so he had to settle for that. Domnul Solovastru has kindly invited Barnaby to come back next summer to make cheese with him in the mountains, so that will be his chance to get properly bladdered.
