{"id":20979,"date":"2016-04-27T19:16:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T18:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=20979"},"modified":"2019-04-02T13:10:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T12:10:16","slug":"say-cheese-gligora-cheese-factory-pag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/say-cheese-gligora-cheese-factory-pag\/","title":{"rendered":"Say Cheese! Gligora Cheese Factory, Pag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome is parked up under a fig tree, with the sound of the sea lapping on the shore at AutoKamp Selce in Selce, Croatia (N45.15214, E14.72229). He’s resting up after a busy driving day and a ferry ride which has seen us leave the island of Pag.<\/p>\n

This morning we had to say a very sad farewell to Phil, Liz, Bridget the pooch and The Beast (aka the party bus), their route is taking them south to Greece, we’re heading north. It was very tempting to team up with them for a few more days, but our livers intervened. Feeling a bit down after saying goodbye (for now), we decided to cheer ourselves up and what better way to do it than to have a look around one of the eight Pag Cheese factories on the island?<\/p>\n

We chose the award-winning Sirana Gligora<\/a> factory because it had a fab write up on tripadvisor and we weren’t disappointed. We squeezed Zagan into the car park and headed for the main door, but it was closed – a note saying to ask at the shop if you want a tour. A lady walking past saw us reading the sign and phoned for the tour guide to come and meet us. A couple of minutes later a Swedish couple from another motorhome arrived at the door and, while we later found out they were only planning to come and buy some cheese, they joined us on the tour.<\/p>\n

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The milk man is here!<\/p><\/div>\n

Donning silly hats, paper coats and shoe covers we headed into the production area where Rachel, our guide, talked us through the process of making the different types of cheeses. Pa\u0161ki Sir, the official Pag cheese, is only made at certain times of the year as it is made from the milk of sheep on\u00a0the island, and they only produce milk at certain times. The rest of the year they import cow and goat’s milk from elsewhere in Croatia. Only sheep can survive the harsh conditions on the island, and make some wonderful cheeses which are flavoured by being wrapped while maturing in lavender, rosemary, olive, cherry and grape pulp (the latter being known in the factory as drunk cheese).<\/p>\n

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Making ricotta cheese from the leftover whey<\/p><\/div>\n

After answering all our questions on the production side, we were then taken down into the maturing room where we were greeted with row upon row of cheese, silently getting stronger and a bit more mouldy (the mould is washed off before it is packaged). I winced at the price of the chunk of\u00a0Pa\u0161ki Sir that we bought at the supermarket, and devoured with Phil and Liz after a few glasses of wine, but now I know why it is so expensive. The indigenous sheep\u00a0are small and produce only a litre of milk each a day. To get that litre they are milked twice, by hand, by around 200 farmers who provide milk for the factory, some of it arriving in buckets in the back of the farmer’s car.<\/p>\n

\"Say

Say Cheese!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"One

One very excited Jay<\/p><\/div>\n

After the tour we were taken up to the tasting room, where Rachel turned from tour guide into waitress. The cost of the tour was 35kn each (about \u00a33.50), but if we bought a cheese-tasting platter the cost of the tour was included in that. We opted for the platter for two, which was 120kn (roughly \u00a312). This\u00a0saw us get to taste most of their range from ricotta and one day old goat’s cheese that squeaked when you ate it (the cheese, the goat wasn’t there), to several of the flavoured cheeses and the famous Pa\u0161ki Sir. It was \u00a36 each for a fab tour and a filling lunch – bargain.<\/p>\n

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As we ate we sat and chatted with our fellow tour takers who gave us some great hints and tips about motorhoming in Sweden – what surprised me is that they will be heading back in a week or so and have planned a week and a half to get a third of the way up Sweden to their home. We’d planned a month and a half. After seeing pictures of snow in Ljubliana from Ann and Martin though, we think we might stay in Croatia for a little while longer.<\/p>\n

\"That's

That’s right little sheep, keep eating the salty herbs to flavour the Pa\u0161ki Sir cheese<\/p><\/div>\n

Cheesed-up, we headed off to the north of the island to catch the ferry to the mainland. The further north we got the more rocky the land became, until there was no sign of green to be seen. Arriving at the ferry port we were glad to see the ferry docked, they are running again after the bad weather of the weekend.<\/p>\n

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\"Pag

Pag rocks!<\/p><\/div>\n

Being British we pulled up at the ticket office and started a queue as our Swedish friends pulled in behind us. After hanging around in front of the closed office for half an hour, the blinds opened and 188kn later (\u00a319) we had our ticket to the mainland.<\/p>\n

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Another ferry pulled in and spilled out so many Slovenian cars, we wondered if they were somehow driving back on the rear of the boat! The school holidays have started in Slovenia! When it was our turn to board a tiny, distant arm was waved in our direction, and on we went. We got out and headed up to the deck, managing a quick walk around the boat, taking in the views of Pag, before we arrived at the mainland. The trip was less than 15 minutes. Disembarking we climbed up to the coast road past another queue of Slovenian cars – it looks like Pag is the place to be.<\/p>\n

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