Redykołka and Podhale lamb: products of sheep farming

In the Podhale region, sheep farming has produced cheeses and meat, and two of these products have protected names in the European Union: redykołka as a Protected Designation of Origin, and Podhale lamb (jagnięcina podhalańska) as a Protected Geographical Indication. Both derive from grazing sheep on mountain pastures and its rhythm: from the spring departure into the mountains to the autumn return, called the redyk.

Redykołka: cheese made from oscypek leftovers

Redykołka is a small smoked sheep's cheese in the shape of animals, hearts or spindles. It is most often formed as sheep, ponies, deer, cockerels or little bears. According to the List of Traditional Products, it is made from the leftover cheese that was not enough for an oscypek, and its taste is slightly salty and spicy, with a distinct smoky aftertaste. The name comes from the redyk, that is the return of the sheep from several months of grazing: the cheese was then handed out as a gift, usually in pairs. In the past the name redykołka was used for any gift of cheese.

The entry on the national list of traditional products was made on 10 October 2005 for the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, and on 12 December 2008 a separate entry of the same name concerned the Silesian Voivodeship. Commission Regulation (EC) No 1176/2009 of 30 November 2009, published in the Official Journal of the EU on 1 December 2009, registered the name Redykołka as a PDO in the cheese class.

What is known about the requirements for redykołka

The Kraków culinary portal states that redykołka weighs at most 300 grams and is smoked for 3 to 7 days, and that it is produced from May to September. The milk is to come from sheep of the Polish Mountain Sheep breed, and an admixture of cow's milk of up to 40 per cent is permitted. The production area is the same as for oscypek. According to this source, the smallest pieces weigh 30 to 60 grams.

Podhale lamb: meat from the mountain pastures

Podhale lamb is entered in the EU register as a PGI. According to Wikipedia, the entry was made on 11 October 2012. It had been added earlier, on 26 June 2008, to the national List of Traditional Products in the meat products category.

• Breeds. The meat comes from sheep of the Polish Mountain Sheep breed, including the coloured variety, or from the Podhale Zackel, a primitive breed of Carpathian sheep.
• Age of the animals. Lambs no more than 60 days old are sent for slaughter. The Kraków culinary portal notes that at this age a lamb feeds solely on its mother's milk. Wikipedia gives a carcass weight of 4 to 8 kg, while the description from the List of Traditional Products speaks of carcasses of 4 to 16 kg, so these are two different descriptions, one for the traditional product and the other for the protected one.
• Grazing. The sheep are grazed on mountain pastures from 23 April to 29 September, that is from St Adalbert's Day to St Michael's Day, and according to the description of the traditional product they spend this whole time outdoors, on unfertilised land.
• Area. The designation covers lambs born and raised in the Nowy Targ and Tatra counties and in selected municipalities of the Cieszyn, Żywiec, Sucha, Limanowa and Nowy Sącz counties. Feed must come from the same area, with the exception of concentrated feed given in winter.

Wikipedia adds that in the first 90 days of life the lambs are fed mainly on their mothers' milk, with the addition of green fodder and hay. Given the slaughter limit of 60 days, however, this information and the sentence from the culinary portal describe the same period differently, so we treat them as two accounts, not one finding.