Van is famous for its lake, the island Akhdamar, breakfast and Otlu Peyniri (herbal cheese). It was early spring, rain was pouring down everywhere in Turkey but the rain made me happy this time. The more it would rain the more herbs I would be able to find. I needed herbs, lots of herbs because I was going to make Otlu peynir.
My destination was Kayalar köyü, 30 kilometers away from Van. When I arrived in the village I immediately was surrounded by hundreds of sheep and goats that were on their way to the green mountain sloops surrounding the village. Old picturesque houses were standing side by side. It was a small but beautiful village.
A group of young people was waiting for me. They were going to help me finding the herbs and show me how to make cheese. No time to waist, we directly left the village and went into the mountains. It would be a long and tiring day. After a half hour walk we took a break. I was quite happy to have a break because the walk so far wasn’t easy. How could I know that we even had not start yet! They made tea on a campfire and their backpacks were like the box of Pandora; a never-ending stream of cheese, bread and honey came out of it. We sat down ate our breakfast and drunk our tea. The mood was gay; everybody was looking forward to the walk in the mountains. 3 men, 3 young women, my crew and I. Together we set of.
A small track zigzagging through the landscape lies in front of me. Minute by minute the path we followed was getting steeper. In the distance dark clouds were gathering. The sun managed to get through the clouds every now and then, which resulted in a beautiful light show of the black rain clouds and some rays of sun peeping through those clouds. The landscape was mind blowing. It was green, very green and everywhere I could see new herb buds trying to get their head out of the soil. ‘We are slowely approaching the area where we can find our first ingredients for our cheese’ one of the men told me. Within a couple of minutes the group was all around the mountain slope in order to find the herbs they were looking for. I stayed behind, not able to catch up with them. They were both looking for herbs and walking towards the next mountain in a tempo I could not believe. After a brisk walk it was time to slow down a bit. When they found a little pool everybody dropped his backpack and sat around this pool. ‘Generally we do a kind of game here my friend told me. We put our hand in the water and the one who can hold his hand the longest under water is the winner’. I wanted to try this game as well so there I sat together with my new friends. On the count of three we put our hands in the water. My God, it was cold. It was freezing. Slowely my hand turned red, my knuckles were acing. One of the girls screamed and took her hand out of the water. At least I was not the first one to take my hand out of the water I thought. A second later I had to take my hand out of the water, it was so cold.
Our hike went on and this time it was even more difficult. A very steep mountain sloop rose up in front of us. This is where we are going to find one of the most important herbs for our cheese they told me. So up we went. For me it was not easy climbing that high but at least my hands were empty. When I looked at Aydın, my cameraman, I felt a lot of respect for him. There he was, struggling to climb up. With one hand he held the video camera and with the other hand he grabbed some tiny little branches to get a grip while climbing. It was difficult but we managed. On the other hand there were our friends who like mountain goats climbed up and at the same time with an incredible speed collected the herbs they were looking for. Fortunately our friends had chosen the easiest route. Generally they go even further into the mountains where the slopes are more step. That day we collected 8 different kinds of herbs but sometimes people find up to 25 different kinds of herbs in the cheese. We climbed so high that we reached the snow and used the icy snow to slide down. Finally we were on our way back but it took at least 1 ½ more hours to reach the village again.
In the village goats and the sheep were waiting for us. I had to milk the animals and there I sat, my hands squeezing the breasts of those poor animals. A woman looked at me and made fun of me. I managed to squeeze just a couple of drops out of the poor animal so quickly the woman took over. One after another the animals were released of their milk. Right after she finished milking them she mixed the milk with rennet.
In a room under their house they continued making cheese. A little bit of light shone through one little window in the room. An older woman was cutting lumps of cheese, mixing it with salt then putting them in a container and mixed it with the herbs. Squeezing piece after piece in a container she finally put ‘ayran’ on top of it and closes the container. The cheese has to be very well squeezed in the container otherwise, when air stays in the container, the cheese will get spoiled. Now it is time to bury the cheese. This has a couple of advantages; it will give the cheese it’s characteristic taste and since there is almost no temperature difference it conserves the cheese better. The cheese has to stay at least 6 weeks in the soil but it can stay there for even more then a year.
The work was done, I was tired, my feet were aching, my face was burned from the sun but I was happy. I made cheese and not just any kind of cheese, no, I made Otlu peynir. ‘Wilco, dinner is ready’, the woman told me. I sat down with my friends, looked around, took a big piece of cheese and ate is time not only with taste but also respect. Respect for all the work, respect for all the new friends I met that day.
