The woman saving a rich history of cheese

With all of the chaos and sad news in the world today, it’s worth seeking out uplifting stories. One that recently caught my attention profiles a woman who is working diligently to save artisanal cheeses in her home country of Georgia.

Ana Mikadze-Chikvaidze, the chairwoman of the Georgian Cheese Makers’ Association, has devoted the bulk of her career to discovering the nearly lost cheesemaking traditions of her country. When Georgia came under Soviet rule beginning in 1921, bulk production favoring quantity and speed took precedence over the time intensive, small-scale products that had been made in the region for centuries prior to the takeover.

According to Mikadze-Chikvaidze, the local museum has evidence that the Georgian people may have been the first people to make cheese anywhere in the world. Building on this wealth of tradition, the locals developed dozens of varieties of cheese over the years. Once the Soviets took over, however, these cheeses were forced underground due to fears of punishment for producing outside of the Soviet system.

If not for Mikadze-Chikvaidze, it is likely that many of the varieties would have disappeared forever. After learning about the traditional cheeses from Georgian ethnographer Tamila Tsagareishvili, she determined to discover as many of these old varieties as possible, poring through dusty books and traveling to remote mountain villages to find people who had held onto their traditions through decades of Soviet rule.

Photo of Georgian cheese and egg bread (Khachapuri) from Food52