Hello you've downloaded a podcast of BBC Radio 4's The Food Program.

Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure.

We hope you enjoy it. We're on the road in the Balkans north of Greece, west of Macedonia. I'm traveling through Albania on a newly built road that's going to take me to the source of some very special food.

The road is a link between the old world, my driver referred to are the

the old world, my driver referred to,

are the remote villages of the mountainous north,

where it's possible to find some of Europe's oldest traditions.

This road is going to take us to their food and to their cheese.

To the cheese, yes.

A typical production of of few villages.

Those villages are only just becoming accessible to the outside world

and the newly built road and the food it leads to are all part of a plan to change Albania's future for the better.

Without a road in 10 years this will be an abandoned part of the world. The question we're asking in this week's

edition is can a piece of cheese help save a rural economy, create jobs and

provide incomes? An important question for one of the most remote and

challenging parts of Europe. But before we continue our journey along this

Cheese Road, I should explain why this is such an important story.

The UK Border Force is caring for 19 people rescued from an inflatable...

18 of those on board were Albanians and two were...

News reports from May this year, the 18 people on that boat represent one of the biggest

migration stories of recent decades.

Although slowing, Albania's diaspora remains one of the largest in the world relative to its population.

...