Žan’s grandmother, Bodaljeva Ivanka, tended cattle on Velika Planina for a total of 13 years. As soon as her lively young grandson Žan was able to walk, Bodaljeva began taking him up to Velika Planina, to the simple and authentic world of Alpine herders and the highest-lying herders’ village in Slovenia. She started showing her curious grandson the mountain’s medicinal herbs and plants, which ones can make the tastiest and healthiest tea. She showed him how to milk their cow
The day on Velika Planina starts at 5 in the morning. And you can only wake up children by giving them an important task: “Žan, go on down and feed them calves, and then you and I’re gonna take these here cows out to pasture, then have our breakfast,” she would say to her sleepy-eyed herder Žan. But she didn’t need to ask for long, because ever since he was a kid – and it’s the same to this very day – he has enjoyed waking up early, waiting for the sun to peek up over the mountain. Bodaljeva’s favorite way to watch the sunrise and sunset was in her kind, responsible, and talkative grandson’s big brown eyes.
Žan doesn’t remember the first time his grandmother explained that Velika Planina was considered a mixed pasture, with cows, oxen, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs all grazing on its grass. Despite the wild variety of animals, the meadow has always been geared toward milk production, so it has always been considered a dairy pasture. But grazing cows and sheep together didn’t work out, as they aren’t naturally the best of friends, and so the sheep and cows were separated and today only cows graze atop Velika Planina.
Grandma did, however, tell that the breed of cows on the mountain were Cika, Slovenia’s only indigenous cattle breed, thought to be a descendant of Celtic stock. It gave a lot of milk, did not eat as much as other breeds, such as the later Simmental breed, a famously hungry product of intensive breeding that made the herders change the rules on the mountain to compensate for the overeaters. At the age of 4, Žan already knew how to distinguish between both breeds, which differ in color and size. The Simmentals have white spots all over their bodies, while the Cika has white on its stomach and back. Simmental cows are traditionally used both for milk and meat, as well as for draught animals. Several other breeds also make Velika Planina their homes today, including breeds developed in Slovenia.
Knowledge about cow breeds, dairy products, especially the local hard cheese trnič, about local culinary heritage, gathering herbs and flowers for Alpine tea, about the fickle and quickly changing weather on the mountain, which dictates the lives of herders and cattle alike… all this and more was passed on to Žan over the years. Žan was special friends with the recently deceased Joško, the head herder, who kept the community together for years. Another of his close friends is Rezka Malijeva, a herdswoman of a respectable 92 years of age, who still warmly welcomes Žan and countless other visitors every day, serving them a spot of tea and showing them how to make the local hard cheese trnič, along with some other treats. Herdswoman Fani still offers Žan a place to rest and spend the night, as well as her unique metal bathtub in the middle of the barn, a warm spot by the wood stove, and a wealth of stories about life on the mountain over the decades. The main foods produced on Velika Planina are soured milk, cottage cheese, and butter. While these are the most traditional, they later started making sweet cheeses as well. Rezka Malijeva remembers carrying butter and cottage cheese down to the valley, wrapped up in leaves of one of the weeds growing on the mountain. This plant does great on Velika Planina, which is so well fertilized by cow pies, and its usefulness led to the folk wisdom that this plant should be treated with respect. x After all, finished dairy products never went bad once they were wrapped up in it. People chew the stems, too, although Žan was never a fan of its bitter taste. All the dairy products, though, and not to mention the blueberries every summer! How he waited for them every year. His grandma made tons of thing with the blueberries, from jam and dumplings to a curiously sweet beverage that the children were not allowed to drink, even though they were seeped with blueberries that looked delicious to little Žan. But he could never reach them, as they were always on the highest shelf in the house. Even if he stood on a chair, he still couldn’t quite reach…
Žan’s love of Velika Planina has only grown over the years, and he even made the mountain the academic focus of many projects in high school and college. He also worked for years in the kitchen at Zeleni Rob making local specialties, then spent 5 years showing guests around the Preskar Museum Hut, the oldest hut on the mountain, built in the style typical of the WWII era. It was once the home of Andrej Preskar and the museum today bears his name. After WWII he decided to build a humble abode to the exact same plan as he had before the war, saying that it had been perfect in every way.
Today your herdsman Žan will don his traditional herder’s outfit and take you by the hand through his beloved Velika Planina, sharing with you the stories told by his grandmother, his fellow herders, and all those who keep the traditions alive today. It is to these old souls that Žan is happiest to take visitors, who show them how to make herbal tea, soured milk, traditional lunch, and the famous local cheese, molded in the shape of a woman’s breast and lavishly decorated. Feel free to try everything they serve you.
You can watch the sunrise with Žan, too, even trying your hand at the morning chores, going into the barn to greet the cows and leading them out to pasture, as well as bringing them back in in the evening and milking them. If you have some luck, you’ll even get an invitation to one of the most amazing events on the whole mountain – the birth of a new calf! Come enjoy Velika Planina with your personal herdsman, Žan! Come one, come all!
There are countless stories, and it’s hard to get them all down on paper, as their true charm is in being told in the right place, at the right time, and to the right people.
