Ovis Angelica - Divine Sheep's Cheese

Elmarie is the sixth generation Van Aswegen on the farm Patria (Latin for “fatherland”) in the district of Smithfield, southern Free Sate, South Africa.  The 1 600 ha farm is situated approximately 120 km’s south of Bloemfontein. The farm consists of grass veldt in combination with Karoo type shrubs on which all the sheep graze throughout the year. Elmarie also farms extensively with Afrino sheep for wool and mutton.

When the business was started, it was called Prod-Patria Sheep Dairy. The name of the business has since changed to OVIS ANGELICA Ovis = sheep in Latin). The dairy sheep flock currently consists of  250 dairy ewes which are divided into groups of between 60 to 70 ewes. These groups are staggered to lamb every 3 months, ensuring year round supply of milk for cheesemaking.
OVIS ANGELICA only makes traditional sheep’s cheeses and also develops new cheeses.

OVIS ANGELICA sheep cheeses are all handcrafted, made according to organic principles even though not certified organic yet. The plan is to move towards organic certification. The cheeses are 100 % natural and contains no preservatives, colourants, chemicals or stabilisers.

OVIS ANGELICA’S dairy sheep flock is managed in a very humane way. The ewes have plenty room in paddocks where they graze on natural vegetation. The lambs are not seperated from their mothers like in most European dairy sheep operations, but instead are kept with the ewes until they are old enough to be weaned. The lambs are seperated from their mothers at night and fed with lamb pellets, lucerne hay and the whey from the cheese factory.