Montenegro | Farmers on my Road

Name: Ivo Ukšanović
Age: 71
Residence: Virpazar, near Lake Skadar (Montenegro’s prime wine production region)
Family: Married to Radmila, no children
Type and size of farming activity: Wine growing and making (0.18 ha of vineyards)
Work force: Him and his wife
Why him: He is a friend of the family who owns the hotel where I stayed. He doesn’t speak any English so I went to see him simply to look at his vineyards and taste his wine; and the next day, he came to the hotel for the ‘interview’ with a ‘translator’!
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Why do so many people grow vineyards around here?
This is Montenegro’s prime wine region, because the 3 elements necessary to grow good grapes – the soil, the variety and the sun – are perfect here. Growing vineyards and making wine has had a long history amongst local people here. Still today, it’s many small producers – who often do this just as a side-job – who produce wine here.
And I would like to make you aware that we do not only produce wine, we also know how to truly enjoy it! At any time of the day and anywhere, people here can be drinking a good glass of vranac!

What type of wine do you produce?
I grow 4 different types of grapes for wine making – and I have a few more varieties, which are not used for wine. These are all autochthonous varieties. I produce only one type of wine, which is made up of a mixture of these 4 grapes (85% vranac, 10% kratošija, 5% lisičina & zadarka.) My wine has already won many awards, including some international ones! I produce about 1000 litres a year and sell them directly to customers at my home. Like everyone else here, I also produce ‘rakija’ (type of brandy, similar to grappa, which they drink A LOT in Montenegro) with the left over after pressing the grapes (= the pomace).

What do you like best about your work as a wine maker?
What makes me really proud of the work I do is the fact that my wife and myself do everything on our own – from caring about the vines, to harvesting the grapes, to handling the fermentation and finally to bottling the wine. But what I really like best about all this, is testing the final product! [laughs].
Many people may think that I’m now too old for this job, but I love it, and as long as I will be able to taste and enjoy my wine, I will continue producing it.

Name: Marko Radonić
Age: 40
Residence: Njeguši
Family: Married, 2 children
Type and size of farming activity: Smoking ham – capacity for 12000 pig legs in his dry-house. He is one of ca. 50 people/families doing this in the village of Njeguši
Work force: Family business, working with his uncle and brother – together, they also own a restaurant
Why him: I went to that village to learn more about their famous ham. Marko was the one guy who spoke English amongst a group of people sitting at a restaurant terrace.
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This village is famous for its ham. So, where are the pigs?
I don’t think there are many pigs left in the village! We are famous for smoking ham, not for fully producing it. In the past, we used to have our own pigs. However, about 25 years ago, as this started to become more commercial, we realized that we didn’t have the right conditions to breed a large number of pigs (not enough space, not enough water…) So we started importing the pigs (back-legs only) to concentrate on the smoking part. Today, most pig legs comes from Hungary, where they have the best slaughterhouses. Actually the breed of pig is not so important, what matters is how much fat there is on the leg (should be ‘2 finger-wide’.) But between you and me, the very best ham comes from the few pigs left in the village, who get the best of food and fresh air!

What is so special about Njeguši ham?
The fame of our ham goes back over 2 centuries, when the technique of smoking meat was developed in order to provide food that can be preserved for a long time for the sailors of nearby Kotor. People found out that there was a microclimate in Njeguši: we are already high up in the mountains here (850 m) but still really close to the sea (less than 3 km airline). This is perfect for smoking ham, because of the various kinds of winds we get (wet, dry, ‘salty’…) Today Njeguši ham is very famous across Montenegro and it can be found in every good restaurant. Actually, I’m convinced that it is the best ham in the world! The only other one to which it is related and which could compete with it is jamòn iberico from Spain.

To whom do you sell your ham and do you also export it?
I mainly work with big supermarkets and I sell some ham to clients directly though our restaurant. Unfortunately demand from the supermarket side has gone down recently; I don’t know exactly why.

If we wanted to export our ham, we would need to follow some production ‘standards’; but this would make the ham lose its taste! However, once Montenegro will become an EU-member [it is currently on the candidate list], we would be allowed to export it the way it is. I can’t wait for this to happen!

What are the main steps in the smoking process?
The pig back-legs are first salted by hand with sea salt – quite a tricky step for which you need experience – and then left with the salt-crust for 15 days. They are then washed and ‘pressed’ (to remove remaining salt and blood, and to give them the right shape) for 15 days. After that, they are lifted up in the dry-house and the smoking process can begin (around November-December): All windows are closed and for 4-5 weeks, we keep 4 fire-places working, so that they continuously produce smoke. After that step, we let the hams ‘mature’ for about 8 months. That’s when the winds come into play to help the flavors get into the meat. This is the traditional process as it has been used for over 2 centuries.