The Elusive DIY Spirit IS Alive and Well at Kumparicka
Many of my guests know that I moved here to Slovenia from Seattle. It’s been over 6 years now and it seems like I get asked these 3 questions a lot: How often do I go back? (Never). What do I miss most about Seattle? (Having great and plentiful Asian food). And what’s the biggest difference in mindsets between Americans and Europeans? For sure that’s our DIY spirit - the belief that the idea and experience an individual has trumps their formal education. I’m quite proud of the fact, that, unlike the majority of my colleagues in travel here, I never spent a day studying tourism, not even a hotel management class. Before I decided to go all-in, take the plunge, and move here to do my tours full time , I spent 20+ years in Seattle working in law firms and Amazon’s tax department.
However, that’s not a familiar narrative on the European side of the pond. There are not many Europeans that rely more on their ideas and experiences than their education. So, that means there aren’t a whole lot of changing careers midstream. This brings me to my friend Ales, who went from working as real estate agent in Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana to making the top goat cheese in all of Croatia, in a tiny village that barely shows up on GPS. Fifteen years of a real estate career changed the day he found a great buy on a plot of land down in Croatia’s Istria region.
Image | Andrew Villone
Other than a farm that was originally built in the 14th century (and has since been completely restored), most of the land was in a ruinous state, covered in bush and shrubs. Alex figured the best way to clear it out was with goats. So he went out and bought 30 of them, and off they went clearing things out (and ended up re-discovering some ancient Roman-era roads in the process). Now they had goats, and goats need to be milked, so they thought of just producing just goat milk. However, one thing lead to another, and after viewing a few Youtube videos on how to make goat cheese (hey, you can’t get more DIY than that), Kumparika brand goat cheese arrived. The name itself comes from the historic name of the family village from 600 years ago and sort of translates into “when something shows up.” And certainly, something quite wonderful did show up.
Fast forward about ten years. Ales and his friends now have 400 Alpine goats on pastures that stretch over nearly 500 acres near the eastern coast of Istria. All of Kumparicka’s products are made from fresh, non-pasteurized goat milk, whether it’s cottage cheese, fresh lactic cheese or semi-hard cheeses. Some of their semi-hard cheeses are aged up to 30 months. Since this region is known for its biodiversity, the goats feast on the farm’s more than 80 types of herbs, medicinal plants and other vegetation all grown on ecologically clean pastures. This gives all their products a special, local taste that’s helped by the sea breezes coming in from the Adriatic a mere 3 miles away. Since Kumparicka breeds and milks the goats themselves, they have full control and can guarantee the quality of milk and tasty cheeses that come from it. It’s no surprise they’ve won numerous gold medals at the Croatian national competition and that their cheese can only be found at the top hotels and restaurants in Istria…unless you come directly to their farm.
Image | Andrew Villone
Back when I first started to offer tours focused on culinary delights, I stumbled across Ales’s business card at one of the pensions where I was staying. Seeing how I had no goat cheese in Istria to offer on my tours (or any cheese tastings at all, for that matter), I immediately put it on my next tour. I decided to bring my guests to Kumparicka, sight unseen and cheeses untasted. A jumble of tiny country roads took us there, though it didn’t show up on my map (God bless those pre-GPS days). This was about as off-the-grid as one can hope for, which is something I strive for on my tours. Safe to say, we would have been more than happy with just devouring the dozen or so cheeses with the delicious fresh-out-of-the-oven bread and a couple of bottles of the local red wine, but Kumparicka’s main product is really only the tip of the iceberg. Soon we had to find room in our bellies for a cauldron of goat stew, minestrone soup and the local specialty, Istrian kobosice sausages. At the conclusion of that two-week food and wine tour, guests voted unanimously that the foodie extravaganza here at Kumparcika was the best overall food experience!
Save room. There’s more than cheese to enjoy at Kumparicka.
Image | Andrew Villone
Now I find myself there with groups as often as I can manage. I never tire of the food because there’s no set menu—just their homemade cheeses and bread, plus a slew of an ever-changing main dishes with ingredients sourced locally from the market in nearby Pula. Here are just some of the dishes they’ve put out in the past year: baked kid with succulentcarrots and potatoes, savory BBQ pork ribs served with local hot peppers, baked beans in earthenware, and fresh calamari cooked in just garlic and Istria’s extra virgin olive oil. After a few dozen visits, I still can’t seem to find any particular strategy on what to concentrate on or in what order to try things. One time I even went completely vegetarian as there were so many interesting small dishes to try, and I didn’t want to get bogged down on the heavy stuff.
Image | Andrew Villone
And anything goes there. Turkish spiced kebabs? Sure, why not? The essential Balkan pastry called burek, thin layers of dough baked with cheese? Sure, they’ve got those too. And then there’s the ultimate Croatian/Balkan dish known as pod peka, which is lamb, veal, or goat, slow-cooked under a metal lid and covered in embers for many hours.Yep, they’ll bust that out from time to time as well.
The completely serene vibe of the whole place is partly due to its remote location and partly because everyone is too busy sampling everything laid out on the large wooden tables here. The silence is broken only by the sounds of muffled food orgasms, the off-beat discussions, and laughter that spontaneously combust when hanging out with the colorful Ales.
Real estate agent-cum-cheesemaker: Ales Winkler of Kumparicka
Image | Ales Winkler
Kumparicka is featured on Savor the Experience’s Harvest Tour and a variety of other tours which Savor can customize for their guests.
