Milica, one of the beekeepers of the rural apiary Kovacevic is a member of the Slow Food, a global movement of local groups and activists united by the common goal of ensuring everyone has access to good, clean and fair food. Slow Food movement was founded in Italy in 1986, and they are now active in more than 160 countries.
The Slow Food branch from Trebinje has made a lot of efforts to protect our local varieties, to preserve tradition and to motivate producers and especially young people to continue or start production. The Slow Food Trebinje’s Youth Group even created a very elaborate map of small producers of traditional products of East Herzegovina. You can find our apiary as well as our fellow producers in this wonderful Google map:
If you want to follow the stony paths of hard-working and noble highlanders whose skills create gourmet magic, then you are in the right place, the Cheese and Honey Trail of Eastern Herzegovina. This unique Trail was created by Slow Food Trebinje and with generous help of USAID Turizam Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Trail connected 16 local small producers of honey and cheese.
“Sir iz mijeha” (“cheese in a sack”) is a unique product of intangible cultural heritage from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The earliest known mention of this cheese dates to the 14th century and is found in the Dubrovnik Archive.
The process of keeping and aging cheese in a sheepskin sack is believed to be one of the oldest cheese making techniques on the planet. Its development is linked to transhumance (moving animals to/from different pastures, often at different altitudes or locations with the season) and is still practiced by families in Herzegovina.
Due to the threat of extinction, Slow Food put the cheese in its Ark of Taste catalogue which includes
a selection of traditional but endangered food products from around the world.
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/slowfood-presidia/cheese-in-a-sack/
The mild climate and rich pasture lands of Herzegovina are not only home to sheep, cows and goats, but also bees.
Beekeeping has an equally long tradition in the Herzegovina. In the southern parts bee are grazed to take advantage of the wide variety of herbs that grow wild including sage, heather and “zanovijet”. In Herzegovina
it is well known that cheese and honey go well together. In fact they are the two key ingredients for a unique traditional dish called “cicvara”.
Traveling the “Herzegovina Cheese and Honey Trail” will not only appeal to your physical senses, it will allow you to walk the same path as our Herzegovinian ancestors and bring our history alive for you. Even better, all of this takes place in some of the most stunning landscapes Bosnia and Herzegovina has to offer. You will discover our traditional culture and observe customs and habits still practiced by our small producers who are proud of keeping their historic food-ways alive.
