An unexpected encounter in his stable in Sost, Jean Sost, 90, leaning on his haystack, looks at his cows. He unraveled the time that has elapsed. All his life he has spent in his village of Sost at the bottom of the Barousse valley. From a family of 3 children, Jean took over the farm from his parents.
Jean Sost recites with the accent of Barousse the moments of his life, “I started very young on the farm, from the age of 14 I was always with the animals. At the time my parents had only ten. The animals were not sold on the Saint-Gaudens or Montréjeau market, which were important cattle markets in the region. More than 300 calves passed from hand to hand. To pay, we had no money. check everything was paid in cash and we slapped each other in the hand. It was a matter of trust. It’s a shame, now there is nothing left. On the farm the cows were near the dwelling house. It was convenient. The cheese-making was also different. We milked, renneted and warmed up for nearly two hours in the copper cauldron in the hearth of the fireplace.
Then, we put them in wooden molds which were made with linden bark, which we collected in the mountains when we kept the cows. The best time to harvest this bark was when the sap was rising. We cut slices that we brought back to the farm, to shape them.
Other molds were made with small walnut planks. They were made with a rack for different mold diameters depending on the amount of curd that was available. Dealers took care of the sale here in Sost.
After the war, I remember that the butchers and grocers of Montréjeau also sold it “.
Today Jean is still present at the cheese factory of his son Denis Sost, well known in Barousse. He looks at the 25 cows of different breeds. He proudly lists “there are: the Abondance, the Tarentaise, the Montbéliardes. The latter are well suited to the terrain of Barousse. Obviously, the first year they do not produce much milk. They have to adapt. and understand the land to survey the mountains, but afterwards they are profitable animals “. Jean Sost is inexhaustible, smiling he tells his life. “Good foot, good eye” Jean wanders around the barn, beating the cows’ rumps.
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