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If during winter time or first days in spring we go to
certain farms in Arrábida zone, we come upon huge clay pots
that stand by the fireplace. According to local tradition
it’s in this containers that the sheep raw milk is curdle
to get a creamy cheese of this region. It’s told that in the
past century only by missing his homeland, Gaspar Henriques
de Paiva, brought to Azeitão a shepherd from the region of
Beira just to make of his flocks milk a kind of "Serra"
cheese, and hardly he knew he was starting the making of one
the most appreciated sheep cheese on national level. The Azeitão
cheese, as it was called since then has won several prizes,
becoming famous all around the country.
No ways, a few families still produce them in artisan cheese-dairies.
Setubal, Sesimbra and Palmela are the actual tree subdivisions
of district to usufruct the natural resources of Serra da
Arrábida that makes Azeitão cheese a singular one . Setubal,
Sesimbra and Palmela are the delimited region of this cheese.
The abundant pasture and the blessing of a mild climate don’t
explain by themselves the truly peculiar flavour of this cheese
that someone has defined as having "a rather wild riste
of sweet herbs". Only the know-how
and the experience, inheritance of several generations of
artisan cheese-makers, can guarantee the perpetuation of Azeitão
Cheese characteristics, campaign after campaign.
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