The cheeses with philosophy of Juan Ocaña

Juan Ocaña's story is reminiscent of that of another shepherd, the young David, who used his sling to bring down the giant Goliath. The Goliath of this fourth-generation cheesemaker from Malaga, in the Sierra Crestellina (Málaga), was the demand for productivity, the obligation to grow in order to increase an ever-smaller profit margin, the destiny of competing in a fierce market. One day he decided to rebel and swim against the tide. He reduced his herd to an eighth; 60 goats that he could manage with the practices of his elders. He switched to organic production, opened the doors of the farm and turned it into a place to learn about the Payoya goat, the heritage of the mountains of Málaga and Cadiz and the culture of shepherds. In Crestellina they offer cheese making workshops and accommodation. They are in the process of opening a space to teach cooking with goat meat, cheese and dairy products, and a cheese bar where you can enjoy a menu based on goat meat and dairy products, along with wines, sausages and sweets from other producers in the area. In the past they only offered cheese. Today they add the pleasure of a privileged natural environment, the beauty of the domestic goat, which is closer to the wild goat, and the culture of extensive livestock farming.

Rebellion and critical vision have always accompanied Juan Ocaña. His most illustrious compatriot, Blas Infante, the father of Andalusianism and defender of the dignity of the peasant, would have been proud of him. "As a teenager, I did not want to follow the family tradition. Being a goatherd and running a cheese dairy means being tied up 365 days a year. Animals don't understand parties. I wanted the same as other kids; a job with weekends off and a fixed salary. I got a job in a bakery and was happy, but it was hard to see my parents pulling it all together, so I went back to them," he recalls. He took some courses in animal husbandry and learned a lot of things he didn't like. "I learnt that livestock farms are called farms for a reason. It's about exploiting the animal to make as much profit as possible. That's what they train you to do.

These were not practices he would have seen at home, where the goats were part of the family and had their own names and personalities. Juan Ocaña senior taught his son how to use the sling and how to train the dogs to herd the herd over the rugged peaks of the Sierra Crestellina. "The Payoya goats live in the mountains and come down to the farm to be milked. They don't like being indoors and they don't produce very many litres of milk. That's why fewer and fewer people are betting on them," he says.

The Payoya, threatened with extinction

Olga González, veterinarian and secretary of the Payoya Breeders' Association, explains that, according to the official census, there are only 10,500 females and 509 males of reproductive age left, distributed between farms in Cadiz and Málaga. "The Payoya goat has been declared an endangered species," he stresses. It is undoubtedly the star of the Andalusian goat breeds on the market, but many cheeses sold as Payoyos are not. González warns that only thirteen cheese dairies meet the requirements to stamp their products with the 'Raza Autóctona 100% Payoya' label, awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. If there is no stamp, the product either contains a proportion of milk from other breeds, or it is an outright fraud.

 In 1930, when Juan Ocaña's great-grandparents bought a few goats to sell for cheese and milk, nobody would have thought of using any other breed than the Payoya in this mountain range. "The beach is 14 kilometres away. My great-grandparents used to go down with donkeys to collect seawater to salt their cheese. But there is a 900-metre drop from the coast to the peaks, and the terrain is very steep. There are better breeds of goats, but other goats would destroy their udders if they were let loose here. The Payoya is a direct descendant of the mountain goat, and the quality of its milk comes not only from its genetics, but also from feeding on natural pastures. It also helps to preserve the mountains," says the goatherd. The consequences of the abandonment of extensive livestock farming in the Serranía de Ronda, at the southern end of which rises the Sierra Crestellina, were felt in the terrible forest fire of 2021, which took 46 days to extinguish, devastated 10,000 hectares of forest and forced the evacuation of 3,000 people. Crestellina narrowly escaped.
Juan's philosophy of respect for animals and his father's attachment to the old ways impressed his son. But his death in February 2020 and the Covid 19 pandemic that followed plunged the family into a deep crisis. "It all came together. The loss of our father, having to take care of a herd of 500 goats on my own, and on top of all that, the collapse in sales with the outbreak, which was huge because most of our customers were restaurants," he recalls. Juan was about to throw in the towel when he received a call from Clara Reina, a rural business consultant and client of the dairy. "She called to see how I was doing, and the truth is that it changed our lives," says Juan.

"I made her realise that their main asset was not the cheese, but their way of doing things and the values they transmit, and that showing that should be part of the business. Juan is very intelligent. He grasped it immediately and the whole family set about transforming the business," explains Clara. "We sold 440 goats to a farmer I trusted. I kept 60, the ones I could manage because my mother is a master cheesemaker and I look after the herd. We switched to organic farming, installed solar panels and changed some of our habits. For example, we stopped using the pipes that carried the milk from the parlour to the dairy and went back to the old vat system. Cleaning the pipes uses a lot of water and electricity, and as we handle less milk, the pipes and pumps are not necessary," he says.

Monitoring livestock by phone

It wasn't all about looking back. Juan has also incorporated cutting-edge tools into his work, such as the mobile application 'Eskardillo', developed by the Andalusian Federation of Purebred Goat Associations, Cabrandalucía, which, thanks to a chip implanted in each animal, allows the herd to be managed on an individual basis, with any incident recorded. Another new feature is GPS tracking during grazing. "When the goats go into the mountains, we track their exact routes to get data on the areas they graze, the type of plants they eat and what they contribute to the final quality of the milk," says Juan. The data is being used in a research project at the Universities of Cordoba and Seville. Another activity for which he now has more time is working with the Andalusian School of Shepherds as a guest lecturer and work experience tutor.

But above all, he is delighted with the opening of the farm to visitors. "They have been fundamental in creating added value," explains Juan. "People see what we do, identify with our philosophy and somehow get hooked. Today, most of the cheese is sold directly at the farm. The shepherd's talk and meeting the herd in the neat little goat shed, which is also home to a family of chickens, attracts curious people of all ages. The goats stay with their mothers and suckle them. "The usual practice is to separate them and feed them powdered milk to keep all the milk. We don't like that. And when our customer sees how the goats live, he accepts that at certain times we can't sell him cheese," he argues.

Crestellina makes goat's yoghurt and the traditional cheeses of the province of Málaga: fresh, semi-ripened and enzyme-ripened. The quality of the raw material can be tasted in the fresh pasteurised cheese of the Malaga type: a very compact paste with the right amount of salt, with the mark of the pleita and an intense milk flavour in every bite. This is also the profile of his cottage cheese, whose main client is the prestigious Buchinger Clinic in Marbella, where the rich and famous from all over the world come to fast and improve their diet. "In the Cheese Bar's menu we want to include the pumpkin and goat's ricotta lasagne created by Fernando Sánchez, Buchinger's executive chef," explains Juan Ocaña, who praises the company's commitment to local producers. "The clinic also offers its staff the opportunity to buy products from all its organic suppliers," he points out.

The excellent pastures of the Sierra give the cured cheeses (there are two types, pasteurised and raw milk) aromas and complexity, with a slightly spicy aftertaste, but above all a frankly milky flavour. However, the star product for customers is the semi-hard cheese, a little miracle of milk flavour, mountain aromas, just the right amount of acidity and a unique melting texture. A cheese, however, that they refuse to enter in competitions. "We make a small quantity and my mother presses it less than the canons of this category require. When we went to competitions, we were always penalised," laughs Juan. If you want to see for yourself, you can buy them online and even choose a wine or jam to go with them, but nothing beats getting to know the goats and the environment. The family that makes them up and the philosophy behind them.