Klára Sinka and her husband, Ádám Serle, with their three children, found the place in Berhida where they do what they love and what ensures their livelihood as primary producers. But the couple's story is about more than that!
- The rural environment, animal husbandry was not unusual for me, it ensures the livelihood of many in the settlement, we also got involved in this - says Klára. - We started the farm with two cows, at first as a hobby, then we also bought the house next door, we moved there, and in the old days we created a cheese workshop, a warehouse, and then the production line necessary for making cheese was located here.
What gave you the impetus?
The house with its many outbuildings, the former barn and the huge area. The first serious period was when we raised seven bulls, one hen, one rooster, one donkey and two lambs at the same time with the help of our caretaker komondor. We have seen more and more that many things can be produced to make a living. I feel that people are starting to realize that they can't necessarily satisfy their own needs only from the store. And it even brings joy, says Klára.
And what is happening now Szamarasház , as the estate was called, which lies almost in the middle of the town? They tried many things, and in the end they stayed with the cows.
"We haven't made the cheese consciously, like a business, just for ourselves." But one cow gives more milk than a family consumes, so we experimented with the surplus. At first, we invited our relatives to a cottage cheese dumpling party, and we kept trying with leftovers, and finally decided to try cheese making. It's an exciting challenge, we read everything and found a cheese maker in Biatorbágy, we went to him for a three-day training. We studied from morning to night, and returned home with a lot of knowledge. And Ádám went to Germany, specifically for a camembert-making course, because it is his favorite. With all this knowledge, and with the experience already behind us at that time, the offer expanded, like this
today, our pride is our cheeses matured with lipstick mold for 2-3 months - Berhida Lyuacsos, Berhida peasant cheese or Amor. Our customers are in great demand for fresh, unripened cheese, balls, parenyica, but we also make mozzarella, feta, and camembert.
The latter is also taken by restaurants, which is why we created our Camembert aging room, since each type must be produced separately. Molds are very intense, they cannot mix with each other - Klára explains.
The family cheese factory used the surplus of the yield of two cows, and later the demands increased, they bought two more cows, and this already gave a considerable surplus.
"I became a small producer," says Klára proudly, and explains that the milk yield matters a lot, but not the quantity, but rather the quality, the fat content. The higher it is, the more and better quality cheese will be. Two main aspects determine quality; the choice of breed - first we bought Hungarian varietals, then a Jersey, which gives fatter milk. So there were animals. Yes, but it's not farmland. We bought the feed that we wanted to grow on our own land for the "girls". At first we grew grain fodder, but today we switched to alfalfa and hay, we make hay, for example yesterday my partner baled oat peas, the protein content of which is good for their tummies and milk. They mostly like baled greens, but they also get a small amount of dry feed. This is how we proceed step by step.
The family farm is based on a daily system
– In the morning, I have a little "me time", I think about the day, I do logistics, who will be when and where, what they are doing. I take the children to school, I get back at 8, while Ádám goes out to milk the "girls". If necessary, he carries out the manure or gives the little dogs water from a bottle, feeds them, grinds them, and prepares the evening feed. He adapted his own work to this, which he does until the afternoon and evening milking.
I suggest that many people shy away from this kind of lifestyle because they think it involves a huge sacrifice. Clári denies this:
"We wouldn't go back to Pest!" Organization provides the backbone of the work, and our plans, because they exist.
We are not bored. One of them has already been implemented, namely that we also make smoked goods from autumn to spring. Because cheese is good, but so is sausage. Our six mangalicas provide part of the raw material, but their meat is fatty. However, the beef is very dry. We thought about it and mixed it up. The end result was excellent sausage and salami! The markets for dairy products and smoked goods reinforce each other, so we market on Saturdays, which was difficult for me to imagine in the past, but we did it anyway.
Dairy products are made from scratch, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, kefir, cream cheese, drinking yogurt and ice cream.
– Their divine ice creams, which we sold for the first time last year, because we had been collecting for the machines for a long time.
This is how one product builds on another, milk is used to make cheese or ice cream, all according to official regulations. Make sure that the milk is used immediately for the ice cream, because it is perishable. It is curious that we produce ice cream as primary producers,
we cook the Italians with the boiled ice cream, although it is based on a German model, with German technology. We prefer manual work in everything, machine work is large-scale, not artisanal.
We want to create a new category of ice cream, which is unique because it is made from the milk of cows from Berhida, "who" eat feed produced by a family from Berhida. This is how the circle closes!
– And what else did the change of lifestyle and residence bring? Recently, my son's class visited us as part of career guidance, and as a parent, I brought them to my workplace, i.e. home. They looked at everything, we made round cheese, had ice cream, and then a palace class visited us. I feel an ambition to teach children, to introduce them to the benefits and processes of homemade food, and I see that more and more people are becoming more and more interested in this matter. In the end, this is where I use my special education qualification - Klára concludes the conversation.
Featured image: Péter Benkő/Diary
