The “Natural” Success Story of Kamiku Cheese from Navarre Spain

Ainara Ansa photo courtesy of Kamiku

Ainara Ansa is one of those people who may just be good at everything. Warm and well-spoken, an engineer by trade, and now a dairy farmer and award-winning cheesemaker, she’s both confident and humbled by what she and her husband Alberto Migueltora have been building over the past 13 years at their farm in northeastern Spain. 

Ansa met Migueltora, a veterinarian who specializes in animal nutrition, while conducting her own university research. They decided to combine forces by purchasing a small herd of sheep (if you count 700 small) in Migueltora’s hometown of Legasa, nestled in the lush hills of the Señorío de Bertiz natural park. They started off selling the milk to cheesemakers in the area but eventually decided to make their own cheeses, knowing that raising the sheep themselves would give them a leg up: full control of the process and final product. 

The couple knew absolutely nothing about cheesemaking, so they set off to learn from artisans and sheep farmers around the country and up into neighboring France. “We wanted to do something different in the market,” says Ansa. “We wanted a natural farmer’s cheese and not an industrial one.” Their experiences in each area led them to develop cheeses that combine the practices and preferences of both countries. Spaniards tend to produce more hard aged cheeses, while folks in France prides themselves on creamy interiors and bloomy rinds. 

Natural Molds

Sheep photo courtesy Kamiku

They combined the best of both worlds and landed on a primarily Lacuane flock, a breed of sheep known for producing Roquefort cheese that has high quality proteins and fats. As they began to produce their first batch— an aged cheese with a bloomy rind made from unpasteurized milk— something marvelous began to happen. Unfamiliar molds outside of the type of cheese molds they were using began to grow. According to their expert mold vendor, they were healthy cheesemaking molds produced naturally by the humid nature of the rainy region. 

Ansa and Migeultora now rely solely on the natural Bertiz molds surrounding them in Legasa to produce their Queso Curado, which has won them numerous international awards. Unlike other hard cheeses, the molds keep the interior extra creamy while still maintaining the poignant bite so characteristic of aged Spanish cheeses. 

Called “truly raw” the cheese made with raw milk that never exceeds 40ºC during processing. The brand was named Kamiku after Migueltora’s family home. In this particular region of northern Spain, homes had specific names like neighborhoods, and folks recognized people by the homes in which they grew up. Alberto was born and raised in the Kamioa house, making him a “Kamiku,” or person of the Kamioa house. 

Today Kamiku has over 6,000 sheep and controls the entire process from the farm to sales, which gives them maximum control over flavor and quality. Their Lacunae sheep give birth at different times throughout the year which Ansa says helps them get a consistently balanced milk and eventually a homogenous product folks can count on. Since their inception, Kamiku has expanded their knowledge and style, now producing five styles of cheese with their own milk, from a rich sheep’s milk camembert called “Camemberitz,” to regionally popular varieties smoked with natural woods. All their rinds continue to be natural and edible— never a synthetic paint— and the milk pure and nutrient dense. 

Kamiku Values

Brushing the cheese photo courtesy of Kamiku

Producing exceptional cheese is just one component of the family’s holistic vision. For one, they’ve created employment opportunities in Legasa. Despite the town’s size (the sheep far outnumber the habitants), all quality control, business administration, and production are led by women, and they have a diverse team in terms of age and nationality. Environmental sustainability is also naturally built into their business practices: they use sheep manure to fertilize the fields where they grow their winter fodder, they give excess whey to three local pig farmers, and solar panels line the farm and cheese processing facilities. 

It’s no surprise that herding thousands of sheep, running a dairy, processing five styles of cheese, and managing a business is serious work. The couple also have three sons, who help when they’re not in school. “It’s a lot of sacrifice,” says Ansa. “When you are raising sheep you can’t close a single day of the year.” And while Ansa and Migueltora continue to win awards, Ansa says it's the personal calls from customers that keep them going. “We put our phone number on the label. When our customers call us to tell us how much they love our products, it brings us so much joy and gives us strength.”