Buffalo butter from Uppland
Linda Elvingsson, Ängsholmens Gårdsmejeri:
– At Ängsholmen dairy farm outside Uppsala we produce buffalo butter and mozzarella from water buffalos imported from Germany in 2012. To start with we thought we’d keep mountain cattle but by pure chance we found out about raising water buffalos at a KSLA meeting. The buffalos are excellent for the health of wet grounds and swamps and produce very exclusive milk. Nobody previously made mozzarella from buffalo milk in Sweden and we are still the only ones in the Nordic region. We’ve been on a study trip to Italy and spent time learning the craft itself. Our idea is this – rather than flying in fresh cheese to make buffalo milk from, we can import the animals and produce Italian products here. Some classic Swedish products such as leavened butter and long milk can be made using buffalo milk and this creates other new and fascinating products which are not made anywhere else.
Our rare, white buffalo butter has been at two tasting meetings long with our cream.
– The two chefs Björn Frantzén and Mathias Dahlgren were my two first clients. I made contact with them myself. Exceptionell Råvara has offered the opportunity to meet other producers than just dairy producers which is interesting as I am a trained agronomist originally.
Ängsholmens Gårdsmejeri is a family company in Harbo outside Uppsala. Recently they received the European source award ”Traditional Specialty Guaranteed”.