20 years ago my wife Emilia and I decided to start a new life on the old farm of my parents in Ciempozuelos, Madrid. Since this is a very fertile area, we first started to cultivate vegetables, but later we noticed that livestock breeding has been our true passion. We focused on sheep and began to raise lambs. Surely, it was not an easy journey and on several occasions we were very close to throw in the towel. When you create your own product you do not only have to worry about its production but also need to think about the people that will try it. Step by step, we improved as breeders and cheese makers. The first international success we had was in 2015 when we won the silver medal for Best Raw Sheep Cheese in the World at the INTERNATIONAL CHEESE AWARDS in Nantwich (United Kingdom). I believe that this price gave us the confidence to continue to bet on small productions of our cheeses where we ourselves could control every step of the production process. In doing so, today we are calling a herd of 1.000 animals our own. After winning the medal in 2015, our success story continued: 2017-2018 WORLD CHEESE AWARD (London, UK):

• Gold medal for our “Añejo” cheese as the world’s best pure sheep cheese.
• Silver medal for our “Añejo” cheese in the category of small producers.
• Bronze medal for our cured cheese as third-best pure sheep cheese in the world.
• Bronze medal for our cured cheese in the category of small producers.

2017 INTERNATIONAL CHEESE AWARDS:

• Bronze medal for our cured cheese as world’s best pure sheep cheese.

2016-2017 SUPER GOLD WORLD CHEESE AWARDS (Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain):

• Gold medal for our handmade “Añejo” cheese.

From now on, our objective is to create a direct channel with the consumers in order to know exactly what amount of cheese to produce each season.

The farm of Marqués de Mendiola extends to 82 hectares and borders the nature reserve “Parque Nacional del Sureste”, situated in the South-East of the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The sheep live in the countryside amidst nature with space to pasture feasting on herbs and wildflowers. In autumn, winter and spring the sheep can eat from the pastures. The summers tend to get very hot in this region, which is why, when the sheep run short on food, Antonio adds oats, barley, clover and other fodder plants to the menu. Antonio and his wife Emilia milk the sheep very early in the morning and very late at night. The sheep spend the rest of the day grazing the countryside or resting in the sheepfold. At Marqués de Mendiola the whole loop of handmade cheese production is closed: Starting from the birth of the lambs, passing through all of the stages of growth up until the selection of the best sheep to milk and obtain the best quality of raw milk. Since Antonio has his own livestock, he knows exactly where the milk comes from and what the sheep eat. They are exposed to a strict health and parentage control, along with nutrition controlled by himself. A healthy sheep produces up to 150 litres of milk every six months. With this amount Antonio produces approximately 27,5 kg of his cheese. Each sheep will be adopted by 9 CROWDFARMERS in such a way that each one will receive 3kg of cheese. Once you have received and tried the cheese of your sheep, you can decide if you would like to continue with the adoption and receive new cheese in the following season (six months after the first delivery). The average age of the sheep Antonio has available for the milk production is 3 or 4 years. As soon as they reach an age at which they do not produce enough milk anymore, Antonio leaves them to rest in the countryside and takes a much younger sheep, giving it the same name chosen at the beginning for the former one. The same applies in case a sheep dies or suffers from any injury that affects its health. Antonio will keep you informed about the day-to-day life of the sheep: The good news as well as the sad ones, if there are any. The 1000 animals living on the farm are divided in lambs, bucks and sheep of which 60 sheep will be part of this CrowdFarming project.