From goats to gourmet
Molnárné Tomi Tünde spent much of her childhood in the kitchen next to her grandmother, learning thelocal cuisineand the ingredients that people in her part ofnorth-eastern Hungaryknew how to find in the landscape, or grow from the region’s fertile ground. Nearly everyone at that time had a garden, some sheep and a few goats.
But successivewaves of economic and social upheavalchanged all that and many people found themselves out of work and distanced from the land. Many of the old ways of making delicious food from local plants and animals fell by the wayside in a world where the main foods people could afford where industrial commodities produced at a large scale.
No wonder that even this energetic and dynamic woman — a force for various good causes in her community — never conceived that she would end up helping to reinvigorate some of her region’s traditional cuisine as a gourmet cheese master.
“I always liked cheese,” she says. “But I never dreamt of producing it.”
After all, Tünde was a social worker, not a chef.As a Red Cross employee, she was well known for organizing blood drives and other initiatives to help those hardest hit by the changes in the local economy.
Cooking up a new approach
Butthenthe Hungarian Red Crossbegancooking up a planthat would changeTünde’slife,while alsohelpingturn around the lives of many people in the area who were going through hard times.
The idea wasto createa sustainable social enterprise that wouldgenerate enough income togive marginalised people(with mental or physical disabilities,health problems or who aremembers of ethnic minority groups)achance to learn new skills, earn asteady income, andfinda place to belong.
The product thatthe Hungarian Red Cross hadsettledon was goat cheese,which would beproduced in a small factory using milk from asmall, nearbygoatfarm. To some in the region, itfirstseemed like a pretty radical idea.
“This is the first goatfarm here inMezőcsát,”Tündenoted.“The people here were surprised, and even more about the fact, thatthe Red Cross is doing something like that.Here, the Red Cross ismainlyknownforblood donation.”
The cheese factory and farmgot off the ground with funding from the Hungarian government, the European Union and the Hungarian Red Cross, andaftermany long daysput in byRedCross employees, from the local branch to Budapest,the new cheese brand was officially launched in April 2019.
The idea came from Red Cross staffwhowanted toexplorenew approaches to humanitarian workin whichasocial enterprisewouldcreate a sustainable way ofhelp disadvantaged residents of the region to find theirown long-term livelihood,instead ofonlygivingfood or other kinds of donations.
At the same time, this new humanitarian business modelwouldgive socially conscious food consumers a waytoconnectthe food they lovewith things they care about: preserving local food traditions, environmental sustainability,acts of kindnessand solidarityand,last but not least,tasty andhealthy foodsto enjoy(all the farm’s cheeses aremade with no preservatives and artificialflavors).
In the end,the goat farm was not only accepted, it took off. The Red Cross’s cheese brand,Kis-Hortobágy Major,launched in April 2019,(see here alink to itsFacebookpage and a recentYouTubepromotional video), has already found a home on shelves in markets fromMezőcsátto Budapest.
Becoming a master cheese maker
Fortunately, when leadership from theHungarian Red Crossasked Tünde to consider directing the operation, she did have some experience to fall back on. “My grandmother and great-grandmother used to make cheese,” she says. “They owned cows, so [the process] was not entirely new to me.”
Still Tünde had some homework to do. Just passed her 50th birthday, Tünde reinvented herself, putting all her culinary and people skills to the test. Fortunately, her husband Tibor had some experience with animals and took on the task of running the goat farm. Tünde, meanwhile, sharpened her own culinary talents and studied to become a certified master cheese maker.
“We usually wake up very early, at 4 o’clock,” she says. “We drink our coffee with my husband. We start working at 5 o’clock, I go to the cheese factory, and he goes to the farm.”
In the beginning,there were 10 people taking care of 50 goatsand preparing the handmade gourmet cheese in a modern and accessible factory building. Today,Kis-Hortobágy Major is financially self-sustainableand its farmstead housesmore than 90 goats, 200 hens and quails and it boasts a large vegetable garden, giving work to the employees who prepare dairy products ranging from smoked cheese to orda, parenica, yoghurt and many other products.
A growing farm, a big family
“I never worked at a farm before, but I like it,” says Norbi, one of the farm workers, whose tasks on any given day might range from feeding the chickens to milking goats or tending the garden.
One of the workers in the cheese factory says she’s also learned a variety of new skills. “I’ve learned how cheese is produced, I had no clue about it earlier,” she says.
Aside fromproviding jobs to people who really need them, Kis-Hortobágy Majoris playing a role in a growing movement that celebrates locally produced, artisanal productsas a key part of finding solutions to a range of social and environmental challenges.
But for many of the workers, it’s about even more.
“For me it’s not just a working place, it’s like a family,” says one of the farm workers.
That family spirit comes through during meals when team members sit down together to share the fruits of their labors. Using their own goat cheese to make the meal is only natural since goat cheese is used in a wide range of regional dishes, from salads to pastries and meat dishes.
But it’s not just Tünde’s talents in the kitchen that make this social enterprise a success. It’s also her natural compassion and experience as a social worker that make Kis-Hortobágy Major a special place to work.
“I don’t think of her as a boss,” says one of the cheese factory workers. “I think of her rather as a friend. It is very good to work with her. She listens to me and helps me in every aspect of life.”
The recipe: goat cheese blueberry cheesecake
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This story was produced and originally published by the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine. To learn about the Magazine, and to read more stories like this,click here.
