Cambios

In the Valle de Orozko-Gorbea (B), the shepherd would get up at five or six in the morning, ''egunsentian, ''and his first job was to round up and milk the ewes, ''ezi'', and to then make the cheese. He would put in a pen the ones that had to be milked, ''esnedunak, ''separating those that had given birth, ''axuridunak. ''The posture adopted to milk the animal was squatting, ''kukurumuxu'', ''kukumixu''.

The Lacha sheep, bred to obtain milk, are above all found on the Atlantic side of the watershed. The Churra, Rasa and Merina ewes, bred for meat, have been more typical on the Mediterranean side.

Up until the 1930s, many farmsteads produced milk for their own use and then began to take the surplus to the city to sell it in the street, from house-to-house and at market. Bottled or packaged cow’s milk is drunk today. It comes from the capital and is available is different types: full, semi-skimmed, skimmed, pasteurised…

The traditional way of collecting the milk from the cows was milking by hand. Mechanical milking equipment would not be introduced until the 1960s and 1970s, even though its use and acceptance quickly spread.