Prestigious award to the SHEEP-UP project
The SHEEP-UP project - Sheep biodiversity in Veneto: an economic opportunity for farmers and their territory - won the first prize awarded by the European CAP Network on 7 May 2024 in Estoril, a network established by the European Community to support the implementation of the strategic plans for Community Agricultural Policy.
The project, born from a group of breeders, researchers and local authorities to preserve the immense heritage of biodiversity and history constituted by the Brogna sheep, a sheep breed at risk of extinction, native to Valpantena and Lessinia, aims to improve the production, profitability and sustainability of the supply chain.
This sheep with a gentle and friendly appearance moves in pastures and has played a fundamental role in safeguarding the natural environment for centuries, acting as a barrier to the advance of woodland vegetation, encouraging the cleaning of meadows and slopes and helping to consolidate the land agricultural.
Already a Slow Food Presidium and protagonist at Cheese 2023, an international event dedicated to raw milk cheeses, our Brogna Sheep is today at the center of the pastoral, craft and contemporary cuisine supply chain, rediscovered by fine dining chefs.
Brogna's milk is more delicate and sweet than that of other sheep and is used both fresh and for the production of the cheeses Pastorin (100% Brogna milk), Mistorin (mixture of Brogna and cow's milk) and Trilatte (Brogna, cow's milk). and goat cheese).
Also to be appreciated is the meat, from local farms that raise sheep organically, without the marked sheep taste and very delicate, used for the preparation of cooked and raw hams and Brognolino salami, cooked in the traditional way, but also an object of interest by local chefs who look to the future, who work the sheep in its entirety, without waste, enhancing all the cuts and not just the noble ones and who adopt modern techniques such as vacuum cooking at low temperatures to preserve the aromas and juices of the meat .
The wool supply chain can also count on virtuous breeders, artisans who work wool with natural methods, using dyes derived from flowers and plants grown in the valley, knitters, spinners, weavers attentive to environmental sustainability, who allocate processing waste to the production of pressed felt for slippers and household products.
An example is the Pecora Brogna dish with its stock, oyster mushroom and caper passed over charcoal at the time of service to obtain a golden and crunchy crust.
Brogna sheep from Scuderia Erbin (photo courtesy Ca' Del Moro)
Brogna sheep from Scuderia Erbin (photo courtesy Ca' Del Moro)
