Palais de brebis

The Palais de Brebis Fermier is a farmhouse cheese made with raw ewe’s milk, made at the farm SCEA Le Brebis du Berry, managed by Philippe Ratel and maintaining a herd of 1,250 ewes. The farm is located in Saulzais-le-Potier, a village in the centre of France that’s known as the “capital of pink sandstone”. On the farm, they breed their sheep, raise their female lambs, and transform the milk from their ewes into cheese, yoghurt, and fromage blanc. All of the animals spend spring, summer, and part of the autumn in the pasture, starting as soon as weather permits. Outside of those periods, they are fed in a sheep barn with hay from the farm’s pastures, dried in a barn. The young grass is collected and dried in the barn using hot air collected from just below the roof. This technique improves the quality of the forage and thus provide the sheep with natural feed. The sheep are all of the Lacaune breed and their milk is processed on the farm in a cheese dairy that is certified for following European standards, using traditional methods. This cheese, which is ripened for 1 week, is quite fresh and has a subtle, unique ewe’s milk flavour. A real treat!