Cheese tourist route
Cheese tasting is also a fascinating journey through Transcarpathia.
To promote gastronomic tourism in the region, a cheese route has been developed with a total length of 100 kilometres, covering all districts of the region.
A cheese tour of Transcarpathia is an introduction to the Boyko, Lemko, Hutsul, and Dolynian cheese-making cultures. It is also an opportunity to taste cheeses made according to Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian recipes.
The Cheese Route of the region offers tourists to see all the stages of cheese making. They can learn the secrets of traditional manufacturing techniques and taste different varieties of this wonderful product.
Extreme sports enthusiasts and those seeking new experiences will be able to visit high mountain meadows, floodplains and pastures at an altitude of over 700 metres above sea level. A must-see attraction of the tour is the tasting of freshly made cheese, not only in the places of its production but also throughout the region. Here you can also hear unique Transcarpathian stories, legends, tales and fairy tales.
The Transcarpathian cheese route also includes "Selyska cheese factory"which is one of the most famous cheese dairies in the Carpathians and Ukraine. It is located in the village of Nyzhnye Selyshche, Khust district. The cheese factory's product range includes speciality cheeses: "Selysky", "Narcissus of the Carpathians" and "Khust" soft cheese, as well as many new cheeses based on technologies developed by local cheesemakers.
Not far from the cheese factory is a small family farm run by the Del Sol family. Green Grove eco-farmwhere they produce organic goat cheese and delicious meat products.
An authentic Transcarpathian cheese factory with its own eco-farm "Baranovo" is also located in the village of Iza in Khust district. Its product range includes kefir made from sheep's milk, sheep's butter, Grun hard cheese and Rika soft cheese, vurda and bryndza made according to the author's recipes. And this is only a part of the original products that you can taste when visiting Baranovo.
Ricotta, Camembert, young fresh cheese with blueberries, linden, lavender, mustard, coffee, garlic, tomatoes, eucalyptus, cuttlefish ink, black pepper, and other cheeses are offered by "Perechinskaya Manufactura in the city of Perechyn. And on the farm "Izkivske Runo In the village of Izky, nine types of cheese with different aging periods are produced from the milk of sheep, goats and cows. Cheese is offered for tasting with tea, honey and wine.
At the cheese factory "Turiansky Dvor"in Turya Polyana, serves six types of products: bryndza, vurda, soft and hard cheeses.
Cheese dairy "Transcarpathian Rune" in the village of Nyzhni Vorota is famous for its soft cheeses. Here you can enjoy smoked, aged, mixed cheeses made from goat and sheep milk.
It is the only cheese dairy in Ukraine where you can taste three-year-aged sheep cheese. This farm in the village of Bilasovytsia.
"Csiga-Biga's Merry Stable" from the village of Velykyi Bereznyi offers brie and caprino goat cheese, sausages made from mangalitsa pig and Czech goat meat.
At the cheese factory of the restaurant complex "A decent host"located at the foot of the Palanok Castle in Mukachevo, will gladly offer cheeses with blue mould or soft cheeses with garlic, breaded in herbs.
Cheese dairy of the Holy Protection Monastery in the village of Rakoshyno, Mukachevo district, produces and offers fourteen types of cheese. An unusual one is ricotta cheese with nuts. It is a real treat.
Farms in Nyzhnya Apsha village, "Blagorodna Kosa", "Rostoka" and "Mykulyanytsia" in Vilkhivtsi village, "Velykyi Vyrkh" farm in Pylypets village and "Banskyi" farm in the "Banske" tract, village of Luh in Rakhiv district are engaged in sheep breeding, cattle breeding, cheese, bryndza, vurda and smoked meat production.
The tour also includes tasting buffalo milk cheese. Several farms in Zakarpattia have begun to revive buffalo populations in the region. The following products are made from buffalo milk: Zakarpattia cheese, paneer cheese with lemon juice, condensed milk, sour cream, bryndza, and butter.
On the farm "Carpathian Buffalo" The farm is home to almost 70 animals, and there is also a small workshop where eco-products are made from the milk, including real buffalo mozzarella.
The farm invites tourists to taste dairy products made from buffalo milk, dietary meat, and various home-made tinctures "Paradise" in the village of Horinchovo, Khust district. It is home to a variety of animals, including wild and exotic ones: buffaloes, deer, African ostriches, peacocks, ornamental ducks, chickens, pheasants - golden, Romanian and hunting - partridges, horses and roes. In the village of Steblivka, you can visit the buffalo farm of the German Michel. Volunteers come from all over the world to work on the farm, and some stay for six months.
The white gold of the Carpathians cheese. Bryndzya, as the people of Rakhiv call it, is a special product. Its production technology has been recognised not only in Ukraine but also abroad. In 2019, the famous Hutsul sheep bryndzya became the first Ukrainian product to meet all the requirements of the European Union and was included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
There is even a museum of Hutsul bryndzya in Rakhiv, where visitors can watch videos from the meadows, sheep grazing areas, and the process of creating a unique product.
And next to the symbolic sign of the centre of Europe in the village of Dilove, Rakhiv district, there is a craft shop called Bryndzarnya, which offers a range of cheese products.
As for cheese festivals in Zakarpattia, the most popular are the Rakhivska Brynza festival in autumn and the Hutsulska Brynza festival in spring, both held in Rakhiv.
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