Jina is an hour from Sibiu, up in Mărginime. The Stoica family has kept a sheepfold there for four generations, with almost three hundred sheep. Since 2017 we have bought our telemea, bellows cheese and smoked cașcaval from them.

We visited again in October, before the sheep came down. Milking starts at five in the morning. The milk sets in two hours, with rennet made right there. The cheese is salted in spring-water brine, not tap water; that is where its clean taste, without bitterness, comes from.

Why a single sheepfold

At the start we tried buying from several. The taste changed from one week to the next and we did not know why. With the Stoicas we know: the sheep graze the same meadow, the cheese is made the same way, and when something differs they tell us before we notice.

We keep the bellows cheese in fir bark until Christmas. If you want to taste it that way, ask at the table; it is not on the menu because there is not enough for everyone.