MOUNTAIN SHEEPFOLD FROM Șugag, Alba county – XX CENTURY
A sheep and cow pen, specific to the pendular herdsman from the Southern Carpathians, was brought to the museum in 1971, from the Prisaca Plain - Şureanu Mountains, where it was at an altitude of 1,300 m. It is a pen with small pods - a peculiarity of the area - that is, with women, possibly marriageable girls from the village, two or three in number, who are employed during the summer by the owners of the sheep (through the mountain leader), to prepare the dairy products - cheese, curd, butter - obtained from milked milk , also from them, from sheep (200 sheep each) and from cows.
The barns also have the task of preparing food for shepherds, dogs and pigs. For the work done, they are rewarded with money, according to the number of sheep and cows milked.
The grazing, watering and guarding of the sheep are provided by male shepherds; they sleep outside at night, in the meadow, around the herd, each wrapped in a long sheepskin coat.
In addition to the barn, part of the cows of the associated owners are also kept, even the pigs whose main food is whey and buttermilk, auxiliary products left over from milk, after the extraction of cheese and butter respectively - a particularly efficient economic process.
The barn is made up of a set of buildings I-the barn itself, with two rooms: a-"the boiler" - the room where the fire is made, the milk is processed and, also here, the little ones sleep; the number of fire pits inside corresponds to the number of vats b-the "cellar" - the room where the products are stored: curd, cheese, cream, butter, rind, whey, buttermilk II-the pantry, a room where the "tartnilets" are kept ( the saddles) of the horses used for supply and various foods: cornmeal, potatoes, onions, salt for sheep and cows, etc. III-the pig pen and the calf pen IV-the lathe with the barnyard, where the sheep are milked (three times a day). The barn, with all its inventory, illustrates in the museum, a part of the civilization of the mountains, of the Southern Carpathian Mountains.
