Ossau Iraty has a long history and is thought to be one of the first cheeses ever made. The story goes that Greek God Apollo had a shepherd son named Aristee who turned milk from his sheep into this cheese. In reality, this cheese wasn’t first created by a God, but does follow traditions and a recipe that dates back around 3000 years. Ossau Iraty thus pre-dates the English alphabet.
The cheese is named after the Ossau valley in the French Pyrenees where it is made. For centuries, shepherds have moved their flocks each summer onto the slopes of the Western Pyrenees to graze on the incredible, verdant landscape there. The local climate is ideal for sheep rearing, and legal protections now dictate that the ewes spend at least 240 days per year grazing on the rolling foothills of the mountains. The cheese received AOC status in 1980 (and PDO status in 1996) and remains one of only two protected ewe’s milk cheeses in France (the other being Roquefort).
This cheese is produced from the milk of local sheep - Manech Tête Noir, Tête Rousse and Basco-Béarnaise ewes in Southwest France. The cheeses are aged in humid caves and are brushed with salt water.
The ewes are outdoor reared on mountain pastures. The carbon footprint of free range ewes is significantly lower than their barn kept counterparts. Food doesn’t need to be grown for them elsewhere and so there are very few, if any, food miles involved in their feeding and in the cheese production.
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