Experiences in the Mátra Buffalo Reserve

How did the life of the buffalo reserve start? When did you become a stockbreeder?

It was partly a gift because my ancestors - going back several generations - were also involved in animal husbandry. It was God's will, it started as a normal farm, and then we rescued twenty buffaloes, which at the beginning was just professional curiosity. After a while, this was our future. We needed a bigger area for the buffaloes. Maintaining the breed matters in our work. Today, our animals live on nearly 150 acres under extensive, or free-range farming. In the meantime, we also kept other animals, and today the livestock comprises approximately 150 buffaloes, 130 Hungarian Parlag donkeys and 15-20 mini-Shetland ponies. 

The reserve needs something to sustain itself. What products do you manufacture?

We supply a lot of places with our artisan products. I am very proud of our unique range of raw and processed buffalo and donkey meat. In the past, several Michelin-starred restaurants have bought from us, and we work or have worked with many excellent chefs, such as Attila Nagy, Barnabás Bokros, Sándor Fodor, Zoltán Debreceni, György Lőrincz. We have good relations with several wineries and vintners, and we have a mutual focus on the organic line, represented by Bálint Losonci and Marcell Bukolyi. We have received several awards, perhaps the highest was the Great Taste in London, where our buffalo and donkey products were awarded a star in the 2021 competition, placing our products at the forefront of world gastronomy, thus promoting the quality of our Hungarian ingredients and paving the way for our animals to ensure the stability of the breed. At the beginning of 2020, we also came up with Hungarian Parlag donkey ham and raw meat, which was an exclusive idea. I call donkey meat “the grazing salmon of the Carpathian Basin", its meat is oily and extremely healthy, beneficial for the body. We are trying to reintegrate donkey fat into quality, sustainable confectionery, partnering with several renowned confectioners. We keep healthy eating in mind, and this type of cooperation has been established, for example with the Keto Academy. We definitely recommend eating healthy buffalo meat, it can be the perfect base for a keto or paleo diet. The composition of buffalo meat is inherently more popular, more likeable, less intrusive, without the strong flavour of cattle. In addition, the animals that live in our free-range farm graze on the Natura 2000 ecologically-certified farmland, which is a mixture of herbs that is incorporated into their meat and then passed on to us. It is also important to note that while beef cattle, for example, are expected to wait 1.5-2 years to reach a slaughter weight of 550-600 kilos, in our case it is 2.5-3.5 years of being naturally-raised and free of chemical and technological stress. We allow time to incorporate all the beneficial substances. We can say that the meat of our bulls should be eaten as a pure food essence. To compare its quality or quantity with a conventional meat intake may seem unwise.

The "SzaFeri" programme is very successful, where we adapt to the needs and number of guests. With or without off-road vehicles, we enter the habitat of the buffaloes, which form a single spiritual population on the pasture, with other domestic and wild species, and become a part of an environment for a short time that introduces us to a world we may never have experienced before. You can admire them up close, which touches us both physically and spiritually. Here the animals are gentle and can be stroked. We have bulls and cows that will lie down if I ask them to. It is likely to be a reward for the stress-free, liveable environment that we provide. During or at the end of our programmes, we will treat our guests to a gastronomic meal made from local ingredients, which they can of course buy or plan to eat at home. For the third year in a row, we are participating in the "Music of the Forest" programme, which offers guided tours of the reserve on open days. In Mátraalja we can present unique and worthy wine tastings with the best local vintners. Our route takes us through the most beautiful cellar row in the area, to the beautiful and consecrated Holy Cross fountain in Szurdokpüspök, one of the many springs in the area that has beneficial effects. Wedding photography is both new and unique. What could be more exciting at a wedding than the bride posing or sitting on a buffalo... But from unique birthday parties to team building sessions, we have a wide range of options for you.