Looking up, we discover the Rocque du Vout, an imposing grey mass against the cloudy sky. At our feet, the Roselend reservoir, an intense blue. All around us, the grass, still green in late summer, is grazed by a herd of hazel-coloured, black-eyed Tarine cows. We are in the Les Moillettes mountain meadow of the Frison family, in the heart of Beaufortain, in Savoy.
This stunning landscape acted as a magnet for Caroline Frison. “After my studies in agriculture, I went to Quebec. But I missed the mountains and the cows too much. I came back.”She says. The 33-year-old therefore finally moved back to her parents’ home in 2017, thus perpetuating a family tradition. She represents the fifth generation of this Beaufort dairy farm. In her grandmother’s time, the cooked cheese was still made on site, in the Alpine chalet, in a cauldron heated by wood. A dozen people shared the tasks. In the summer of 2024, Caroline Frison will be looking after the herd of 160 animals, including 85 dairy cows, together with her father, with the help of an apprentice and a haymaker.
The construction of dams such as Roselend almost caused the Beaufort sector to collapse. The attraction of more highly valued professions offered by EDF or other companies, the attractiveness of the town, the harshness of mountain farming, have to some extent filled the void. It was at this time, in the early 1960s, that cooperatives were created to take over the production and marketing of Beaufort. Grouped together in the Union of Beaufort Producers, they defended the specifications of this cheese with protected designation of origin (PDO), obtained in 1968.
Copper and linen vats.
Today, in the cellars of the Beaufortain dairy cooperative in Beaufort-sur-Doron, robots regularly salt and turn the cheese wheels. This is done throughout the maturation period, which lasts a minimum of five months, with an estimated optimum time of between eight and twelve months. “When I arrived, fifteen years ago, the molars “More than 40 kilos were salted by hand. But due to staff back problems, we decided to robotize in 2017.”explains Pierre Laurent, director of the structure. A way to compensate for the lack of candidates willing to do this hard work.
The cooperative’s 37 employees take turns in teams to make the precious cheese. In summer, a period of peak production when the cows are out on the mountain pastures and enjoying the fresh, rich grass, milk is collected twice a day and the factory operates from 4:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. In winter, the capacity is halved with a single morning collection in the valley. But the 14 million liters of milk received each year no longer leave the farms in cans, says Boyes. In 2017, the cooperative also decided to equip itself with a fleet of tanker trucks to carry out the collection.
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