Our history
From mountain pasture to dairy
The dairy started up in 2009 at the goat farm, Raundalen, in Vinje municipality. This goat farm had associated mountain areas, and in summer the goats therefore move up to the mountain pasture, Nedre Lega (the drawing above). Lega comes from the word 'ei lege', meaning a sheltered and lush place that animals and people often seek refuge in.
Here at 930 meters above sea level there is lush and good mountain pasture. Summer farming has been practiced at Lega for a long time, probably for several hundred years. In the 1800s, people from the central Telemark villages owned the pasture and went there with their livestock in summer. Lega lies openly and sunnily facing Skinnuten and Solbjørgfjellet. The view towards the surrounding mountains is magnificent, with the imposing Vehuskjerringi as a recognizable landmark in the west. Here you also find the old summer farm settlement Brannkvålen, rich in legends and folklore.
With heart for the goat
The goat is our starting point in everything we do. We make hard, award-winning cheeses with natural rind from goat milk and cow milk. We use whey (waste from cheese-making that is delicious) in most of what is baked, and goat milk in the delicious cinnamon buns.
The founder, Gro
Gro is the founder and driving force at Lega. She started the dairy in 2009 at the farm, Raundalen. The bakery came as a result of 'downtime' during the brown cheese cooking. The process with brown cheese takes several hours, and the founder, Gro, did not have time to wait. As a result, the griddle-baked pizza base from Lega was invented in the bakery.
Lega today
Lega is now a dairy and bakery with café and shop in Rauland in Vinje municipality. Here you can get Lega's products and other local food producers' products.
Now the dairy and bakery have grown out of the original premises. Gro's son has taken over the goat farm, but we still get milk from this farm. Tine delivers milk to us three days a week. One of the days we receive cow milk for our white aged cow milk cheese, Heimros.
Lega has seven permanent positions, but over 10 person-years counting all extra employees working in the café. Young people aged 14–30 work here with us. The extra employees working here are either school youth from middle school, high school students who come home during holidays, and students from the University here in Rauland. As many as 25 extras are on the list so that evenings, weekends and holidays work out. Lega wishes to be a competence-enhancing place and therefore has frequent courses in cheese-making, coffee and more. It is extremely important for Lega to be a safe, inclusive and forward-thinking workplace.
In the building there is a shop and café section that sells pizza, bread, baked goods and many other good products from Lega and others. The pizza oven is the heart of Lega and gives an extra good taste to all products that you can enjoy here or take home. Goat meat and goat cheese are used on the pizza, and everything is handmade by us, or ordered from other small producers like us. We care about quality in all aspects and wish to point out that we have sourced the best of the best products that we think are in Norway.
Award-winning products
Lega's cheeses have among other things won a super gold, a gold and a silver diploma in World Cheese Awards. Stavsfjell, Heimros and Knubbost may remind of cheese types such as Manchego, Parmesan, Peccorino, Feta, aged Gouda and more.
Come by for a pizza and coffee in our café!