There are more than 50 varieties of cheese in Asturias, 4 of them with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) in Europe (Cabrales, Afuega’l Pitu, Gamonéu and Casín), and another one is in process of obtaining this European distinction: Los Beyos. I’m a cheese lover and Gamonéu is among my favourites.
Gamonéu or Gamonedo (PDO) is a ripe, high-fat cheese, with a natural rind, made from cow’s milk, sheep’s milk and goat’s milk or from mixtures of two of these three types of milk. The cheese is lightly smoked and has a light bloom of greenish-blue penicillium close to the edges. The production area is in Asturias, in northern Spain, in the districts of Cangas de Onís and Onís. (Source: Cheese from Spain).
There are two varieties of this cheese depending on the location where it’s made and seasonal production. On the one hand, Gamonéu del Puerto is made from June to September in the caves of Los Picos de Europa and Cangas de Onis, on the other hand, Gamonéu del Valle is made in small dairies in the lower areas of both these councils all year long.
The attached picture has been taken from Wikipedia Commons.
A Crime is Afoot 
You have made me very, very hungry indeed, damn you, Jose Ignacio — doubly a pain since I’m supposed to steer generally clear of cheeses, especially the high-fat ones. Mostly that’s not a worry, because in this neck of the woods even standards like Dolcelata and Stilton are hard to come by — in other words, there’s no temptation. But that photo and your evocative, alluring, nigh-erotic text . . . oh, jeez.
As I read once in a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip: ‘You know, it takes a lot of courage to resist temptation …. but who said I’ve a lot of courage’.
Oh, gosh, I could live on good bread and cheese. And here are 50 more types of cheese than I have known about and they are probably not available near where I live.
I looked up Asturias as I believe it’s a region with a very strong history of activism by miners.
But what sent me to a map is that I just got a wonderful book out of the library, just out: Granada: A Pomegranate in the Hand of God, by Steven Nightingale.
i took it out to read about Granada and the period when Jewish people, Muslims and Christians
lived together, and art, literature, philosophy, architecture developed. I can’t wait to read it.
It got rave reviews in the New York Times.
Kathy thanks for your visit and for taking you time to comment at The Game’s Afoot. Given your interest about a period when Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together in peace, I wonder if you have read my previous post about Córdoba https://jiescribano.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/ot-the-city-of-cordoba-spain/ Thought you may find it of interest.
I had not seen you post, but I just read it — great, but I want to know more.
My mother, whose parents fled anti-Semitic pogroms in imperial Russia’s empire in 1907, was
fascinated by the history of Jewish people in Spain, living with Muslims and Christians in peace —
and where all types of art flourished. She read a great deal about this and also about what
happened to Jewish “conversos” who remained in Spain.
She would have lived this book about Granada. She and my aunt had visited the Al Hambra
and she talked to me about it.
I will read more about Cordoba.