OUR AGRICULTURAL KNOW-HOW
Rural expertise
Whilst our cooperative is renowned for the quality of its products, this respected reputation is also the result of its long-standing and exacting requirements. From producers to cheese and butter production, each and every member of the CLS respects and preserves the centuries-old savoir-faire, which is passed on from generation to generation.
Since 1997, the Quality Guidelines for milk production, established by our cooperative members, have provided a structure for the way in which they raise their livestock. This document groups together a series of good practices which represent agricultural expertise that has been passed down from generation to generation.
Our quality guidelines evolves to take into account significant and structural elements regarding the following subjects:
- Animal feed with NO GMOs and No palm oil
- Animals raised without attachments
- Exercise areas available
- Enrichment provided for the animals
- Promoting soft medicine for animals
- Reduction of carbon footprints on the farms
In addition to its farming expertise, our cooperative establishes and implements milk collection practices which ensure optimal quality for the raw material. The dairy workers collect milk from the farms every 48 hours. Every aspect of the product is meticulously traced and inspected upon arrival in our dairy. Internal and external analyses are conducted to guarantee faultless quality.
Our two century-old dairies well-preserved know-how
Our two production sites have been based in the historic milk pool of Deux-Sèvres for more than 130 years:
The Laiterie Sèvre & Belle, founded in 1893, in Celles-sur-Belle, is specialised in the product of exceptional goat’s cheeses and UHT milk.
The Laiterie Echiré, established in 1894, in Echiré, world-renowned, has built its reputation on the exceptional quality of its products, particularly its AOP Charentes-Poitou Butter
The Echiré dairy :
a team driven by expertise in excellence
The Laiterie Echiré is globally renowned and recognised for the quality of its products and, in particular, its excellent butter. This reputation for excellence has been built on the expertise and savoir-faire lovingly preserved and upheld by its team since its foundation in 1894.
Our production process respects ancestral techniques, such as :
- Slow maturation of the cream : A signature of traditional production methods, our cream is slowly matured over at least 18 hours, allowing it to release its natural aromas.
- Butter churning in a wooden barrel churn : Our dairy is one of the only dairies left in the world to still use the ancestral techniques of wooden barrel churns. This step in the process takes around 2.5 hours and guarantees an exceptional and incomparable texture. The churning effect whips the cream and, after just a few minutes, then transforms it into butter grains.
- The production on a human scale : Our team of master butter-makers have perfected each essential technique to create a flawless product.
- Protected Designation of Origin Charentes – Poitou Butter : : Echiré was one of the first butters to be awarded this label in France. Since 1979, the production of this product of excellence has respected strict specifications, ensuring the essential characteristics specific to it, which won’t be found anywhere else. This mark of prestigious quality forms a strong bond between a product and its region, and highlights a traditional production method which gives the product its unique authenticity. AOP Charentes-Poitou Butter represents approximately 80% of the total production of PDO butters in France.
La Laiterie Sèvre & Belle :
Exceptional goat’s cheese and responsible milk
The Laiterie Sèvre & Belle has two types of production workshop: The cheese workshops and the UHT milk workshop.
Produced using traditional processes, our cheeses stand testimony to savoir-faire dating back more than 100 years. Raw or pasteurised, plain or with ash… These exceptional products present different flavours and textures that delight even the most exacting palates. These differentiating characteristics are created and enhanced through our centuries-old expertise:
- Raw milk cheese : Our Cooperative is a reference name in the production of goat’s cheese made with raw milk. Our productions follow demanding specifications which ensure impeccable food safety. This is achieved whilst upholding traditional techniques that have been preserved over the years.
- Grand levain : Our milk is matured with a starter culture – the grand levain.
- Renneting in basins: The milk is curdled in basins, like it was in the past. This practice adds an artisan aspect to our production, highlighting its human-scale dimensioning.
- Manual moulding : Some of our raw milk cheeses are manually ladled into moulds. This traditional technique has been used in our cheese dairy for over a century.
- Manual affinage in cellars : Affinage is the final stage of the cheesemaking process and involves the cheese being salted, rubbed, washed and turned – all done manually in our dairy. With no use of machines, the affinage of our products is ensured by our masters’ expertise.