Robiola DOP Cheese Producer Wilma Traversa

Have you ever wanted to try new cheeses from all over? Well, you’re not alone as many people claim to be cheeseophiles just like you and I! They are so addictive as they pair well with many different foods, have a huge variety in flavors and make many wines taste even better. I recently traveled high into the hills of the Langhe Piedmont to explore and seek out a high quality Robiola cheese from Roccaverano.

I discovered Wilma Traversa, a single middle aged woman with several children, a Robiola production farm, a petting zoo and school for children to learn about farming. Her warm smile and affable nature is evident from the moment I arrive at her hilltop farm. She has over 40 goats of 3 different species Camosciata, Razza Roccaverano, Incroci. Each one of these goats are like her children which you can tell she loves immensely. However she also keeps some of them for education with the children that come to learn in her study center. Everyday she needs to milk the goats and each day she forms 35 wheels of Robiola roughly 1 pound each out of 100 percent goats milk even though the DOP allows a percentage of Sheep or cows milk.

Please refer to my article here for the Robiola DOP requirements. After three days these wheels can be sold as fresh cheese. After 10 days it can be sold as mature and after 30 days it can be sold as dry cheese. The consistency and texture of Wilmas cheese is so creamy and fresh. I can just almost imagine her cheese with just a bit of olive oil salt and pepper smeared across bread!!! My salivary glands are already secreting saliva just thinking about it. Some other great uses for her cheese besides just eating it is to make a gnocchi cheese sauce with it if you really want to take a local trip to heaven.

After Wilma showed me her entire bucolic production I managed to see her hands which were cracked and dry from hours of milking and farm work. These most certainly did not match the warmth of her soul in the slightest. She told me that there are only 80 people that live in her tiny town of Roccaverano and only 35 of those are year round. I imagine the life in the winter high up in these mountains must be tough at times. She is a shining bright spot in the bleak winter and is essential not only for her contributions to the gastronomy of Piedmont with her cheese but also as a wonderful role model for all the wonderful childrens minds she shapes at her school. The world needs more people exactly like Wilma Traversa!

If you would like to take a trip here her bed and breakfast complete with several rooms was just remodeled as I wrote this article and eligible to receive people. Get out and explore in some of these places off the beaten path as I am sure you just might fall in love and appreciate others more by just opening your mind to the exploration of food, other people and their cultures..