GREINA (2006)
A film by Villi Hermann, Imagofilm Lugano, Switzerland
Narration by Giovanni Boggini, cheesemaker, translated from Blenio dialect (a valley in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland)

:: Motterascio Mountain Pasture, dairy, inside :: (making butter)
I'm the cheesemaker. Every year we need to find a cowherd and an assistant for the cheese-making. We find the assistant locally, a young person from the valley. It's a bit more difficult to find a cowherd, because they need to be experienced. Finding the staff gets more difficult all the time. This year we've got Jacopo and a girl from Zurich. She's a school teacher during the winter, and helps us here in summer.

:: Motterascio Mountain Pasture, dairy, inside ::
The cooperative which is responsible for moving the cattle onto the pastures is made up of locals from Aquila. The local landowners own the mountain grazing areas. We in the cooperative rent the land from them. In order to have more animals up there, we also take them from the Magadino Plain, both heifers and cows, for about three or four months.

:: Greina Mountain Pasture, outside ::
The cowherd is responsible for the cows, and must be able to ensure they eat enough each day, keep them out of harm's way, make sure they are healthy and look after them when they get sick.

:: Motterascio Mountain Pasture, dairy, inside (making butter) ::
The grass has a big influence. On a pasture at an altitude of 7000 ft the plants have their own particular qualities. The pasture has good composition, the grass is always fresh, especially "mottarina" grass which leaves a good taste. Actually the product takes on a yellow colour, which comes from the grass itself. You don't find grass like this everywhere. In certain areas there is a hard grass which might give a bitter taste to the cheese.

:: Bellinzona Market (photographs) ::
We sell the cheese ourselves, both on the pastures and from our homes. In October we go to the fair, mostly to get to know each other. The cheese itself has changed. Up to recently you could make it in the traditional way without worrying too much about the regulations. Now, it's more difficult. In fact, the landowners have had to renovate the cheesery to order to keep to the regulations. But something has been lost in the taste. There are fewer and fewer cows available for grazing. And something else we no longer have are the pigs. But that's for other reasons. Taking them up and down is just too much work.

Translation Tim Quinn