São João Batista do Glória · Minas Gerais, Brazil
One doorcloses, anotheropens
In 2018 we closed the shop that had supported our family for twenty years. It was the end of one thing and, without knowing it yet, the beginning of another.
We are not a brand that invented an origin. We are two people who lost everything and started again with five plain pé-duro cows, lent to us by the kindness of an uncle.
Today the milk of those cows becomes cheese in a dairy built from what was left of the shop that went under. That is what we serve when someone arrives: a piece of cheese and the whole story with it.
The story, chapter by chapter
Every backyard has a story. Ours began again.
In 2018 we closed the building-supply shop that had supported our family for twenty years. With it came everything that comes: the insecurity, the fear and the shame of starting over in front of people who have known us all our lives.
Many generous people helped us start again: an uncle with five cows, a Sebrae manager, a couple of cheesemakers, a master who answered messages every day. This page tells that story in the order it happened, chapter by chapter.
2018 Chapter 01
When the door closed
We had run a building supplies shop in our town for twenty years. At the start of 2018 it no longer worked: the accounts did not add up, the payments did not fit, and we had to close the doors.
Everything that comes with that came too — the insecurity, the fear, the shame of starting from zero in front of people who have known you all your life.
Starting again Chapter 02
The smallholding that was grandfather's
Our life has always been guided by faith. So that is what we did: we asked God for wisdom and discernment to understand what the new beginning would be.
We already had the smallholding that belonged to my paternal grandfather. The first idea was to grow organic legumes to sell to schools through the national school meals programme. I looked for the local agricultural extension officer for help and, for some reason, he did not see me at that moment.
Some time later, it was he who called me — to fill a place on the course on good practice in Canastra cheesemaking. I went.
Uncle Célio's gesture Chapter 03
Five plain pé-duro cows
During that week of the course, my uncle Célio — our neighbour — found it strange not to see me and asked Renato whether I was ill. Renato explained that I was on the cheese course.
“And are you going to make cheese?”, he wanted to know. Renato said no: we had no money to buy a cow.
Two days later he arrived with five plain pé-duro cows. That is when we understood that God was giving us a new beginning.
Learning Chapter 04
A lot of cheese went in the bin
I thought making cheese would be simple. It is not. At the start we threw a lot of cheese away.
Then Fabiana, the regional manager at Sebrae, brought Ivair — the man behind Ivair's cheese — to give a talk here in Glória. We wanted to speak to him and could not. Two days later he called, saying that Fabiana had told him we needed help.
He invited us to his farm and, in a single day, he and his wife Lúcia taught us everything they knew. We came back with a different head on our shoulders.
The dairy Chapter 05
Built from what was left of the shop
We understood that we needed a dairy that met health inspection standards to make a truly good cheese. Renato built the whole thing — with what was left of our building supplies shop.
Along the way I met Roberto, a master cheesemaker in the Canastra for more than forty years. For over a year we talked every day on WhatsApp, and he answered every one of my questions.
So, day after day, we built this story. A year later the first two medals arrived.
4 December 2024 Chapter 06
We put Glória on the map
Then another battle began: joining Aprocan, the association of Canastra cheesemakers. The refusal always came for the same reason — Glória was not part of the Canastra Geographical Indication.
It took a year to get in. And then the fight became getting Glória inside the Geographical Indication itself: an expensive and very slow process. I knocked on many doors until Sebrae and Sicoob decided to help, paying the R$ 45,000 registration fee at the national patent office.
On 4 December 2024 I received the registration from the hands of Mateus Simões, today the governor of Minas Gerais. It was a long, hard fight, because until then it was only Renato and me. But we won that battle and put Glória on the map.
The timeline
From 1998 to today
1998: The building-supply shop opens in Glória.
2015: Uncle Célio's five pé-duro cows.
2016: The first cheese.
2017: The dairy is ready.
2018: The shop closes. The first two medals arrive.
2020: We join Aprocan.
2024: Glória joins the Canastra Cheese GI.
2026: The three suites open.
Who walked with us
Nobody did this alone
Tio Célio
Neighbour and uncle. He noticed Nilseia was away during the cheese course, learned from Renato that the family had no money to buy a cow and, two days later, turned up with five pé-duro cows. That was the start of the herd and of the dairy.
Fabiana, do Sebrae
Regional manager at Sebrae. She brought Ivair to Glória for a testimony and told him we needed help. The bridge she built changed the way cheese is made here.
Ivair e Lúcia
Cheese producers. They welcomed us on their farm and, in a single day, taught us everything they knew. We came back from there with a different mindset.
Roberto, mestre queijeiro
More than forty years making cheese in the Canastra. For over a year he answered Nilseia's every question on WhatsApp, every single day.
Sebrae e Sicoob
They paid the R$ 45,000 INPI registration fee that put São João Batista do Glória inside the Canastra Geographical Indication.
Come to the backyard
The gatestays open
Come and visit, order a cheese or just drop by for coffee. We like people.