On Monday in via San Nazario, in Ivrea, the Garda company store will open. Zero kilometer products, without preservatives and milk traceability
IVREA. A reality that for sixty years has been based on the very solid foundations of three women who have successfully dealt, over time, with the management of the family business, creating a successful entrepreneurial story that still lasts and, in the midst of the pandemic, has been able to find the courage and energy to expand. This is the Caseificio Garda, based in Albiano, which on Monday 19th will also open a company store in Ivrea, in via San Nazario 2, to give not only a space in the city center to its products, but also to make known their passion and dairy knowledge that are there at the origin. Zero kilometer products that express an excellence of which the Canavese can certainly boast with pride.
«My grandmother, Ines Garda, who also gave the name to the business, founded the company – says the current owner, Luisella Zanetto, 42 years old -. It was she, in fact, who tried to make a cheese and, given the excellent result obtained, involved her daughter or my mother, Silvana Zuffo and, together with her, opened the first dairy in the center of Albiano. In the nineties, after graduating in accounting, I chose to follow in the footsteps of my mother and grandmother and I too joined the company. In 2008 we obtained the recognition of artisan excellence of Piedmont, while the transfer of the activity to the industrial area dates back to 2017: a new factory in which the manual production characteristics of the old dairy continue to be maintained. In 2020 we opened the company shop which was very successful ».
“Today – Luisella underlines – next to me, as an assistant, is my husband Piercarlo Chini Filipetto, and there are seven employees, Nicola Mircea, Mihai Martinas, Consuelo Ollearo, Lara Consoli, Marco Steri, Michael Ogu and Andrew Udin, all driven by the same enthusiasm for their work. Our transformation activity collects milk from 26 farms in the area, for a production of over 30 quintals of cheese per day. The collection of milk in the Canavese farms and the personal knowledge of each farmer allow us to have the certainty of traceability and the way of operating of each of our contributors ».
And he illustrates: «Our queen is the Toma di Albiano that we have been producing for 60 years and it is a little bit the basis of all our types of cheeses on which we intervene with different skimming and aging. It is a semi-fat toma cheese, aged 60 days that has a medium taste, not excessively strong and suitable for all palates. Also based on toma are the Stravecchio and the Maccagno, a typical Biella cheese, fatter, softer and sweeter, which we have been producing for 40 years and we know very well. And then the Piedmontese DOP Toma: we are, in fact, members of the consortium of the same name which certifies all our suppliers for the supply of the milk needed to make it. Among the cheeses we also offer fresh tomini and in oil, crescenza and ricotta produced daily. Next to that of cheeses, we combine the production of butter, that of the past, yellow because it is not treated with any type of thickener or dye, but simply churned and wrapped. All our products are free of chemical preservatives ».
«We work – he highlights – always trying to offer products of the highest quality respecting raw materials and the territory. Ours is a small company that always tries to renew itself, while maintaining the foundations of tradition that have always distinguished our products and our work ». And he concludes: «We like to move in absolute craftsmanship and whoever comes to buy in our shop will therefore not find a resale item but a production item. At the shop there will be only our products and the hope is that people will have the desire to come and try them and, above all, that they like them ». –