Now more than ever, we’re realising that we are what we eat. That’s why it’s increasingly necessary (although sometimes really hard) to know where our food comes from and how it’s made, especially if it’s of animal origin.

The Lluçanès Milk Route offers you the chance to learn about the region’s animals, food production processes and dairy products, such as milk and cheese. To see all this, you'll need to make reservations at the farms you want to visit. These paid tours help small producers conserve the local countryside.

Here are three of the farms you can visit on the Lluçanès Milk Route:

• Formatges de Lluçà (Lluçà Cheeses), with a herd of grazing goats and an artisanal cheese production facility. The visit also includes a product tasting. To make a reservation, call 619 728 079.
• Formatges Betara (Betara Cheeses), with a herd of organic sheep. You can visit the farm and the cheese production facility, with the option of a product tasting. To make a reservation, call 938 880 852.
• Soler de n’Hug is a dairy farm that uses a robotic system to milk its cows. The visit to the farm also includes the option of a product tasting. To make a reservation, call 686 793 647.

If you want to be even more sustainable and don’t want to pollute the air while travelling from one dairy to another, we recommend hiring a burricleta, at the Lluçanès Burricleta Centre in Perafita. In case you were wondering, a burricleta is an electric bike with saddlebags on the sides, making it somewhat akin to a pack donkey, hence the name (donkey bike).

Now that you’re enjoying keeping fit touring on a fantastic burricleta, it would be a shame to miss out on other delights of the region beyond the pastures and dairy processing plants.

If you're feeling up for it and fit enough, an hour’s pedalling through the forest will take you to Alpens, one of those small villages where time seems to have stood still. In the old quarter, you’ll find the Church of Santa Maria d'Alpens, a Baroque-Neoclassical building that was burned down during the First Carlist War and still conserves its 15^th-century bell tower, and the small Church of Sant Pere de Serrallonga, a 9^th-century pre-Romanesque building. The Llena Spring, which the older villagers take care of and where locals still go to fetch water, is one of the most visited spots. On the outskirts of the town, Rocadapena shows how time and erosion can sometimes create bona fide sculptures out of natural rock walls.

In Olost, another small town in the Lluçanès region, nestled at an elevation of 580 metres in a valley traversed by the Gavaressa Brook and the Lluçanès Stream, you'll find the Espai Rocaguinarda, an interesting museum that tells the story of banditry in Catalonia. Close by is the village of Santa Creu de Jutglar, at 606 metres above sea level, where you’ll find the Church of Santa Maria d’Olost, dating from the late 17^th century, and the Hermitage of Sant Adjutori, completed in 1717.

You can round off this excursion with a visit to the Church of Santa Maria de Lluçà, which, tucked away in the forest, has done a great job of preserving its Romanesque heritage.

The Lluçanès Tourist Board can offer you plenty of recommendations for accommodation and eating out.