"About the last thing I ever thought I'd make an investment in is a sheep station, " he says.

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In the centre of Tafraoute, sheep make their way up a dry stream bed.

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To make maggot cheese you start with a slab of local sheep cheese, pecorino sardo, but then let it go beyond normal fermentation to a stage most would consider infested decomposition (because, well, it is).

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Meanwhile, the women were asked to run over an assault course while carrying buckets of water and tackle the butchery skills needed to separate a sheep's liver, heart and lungs to make faggots under the guidance of a local butcher.

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In order to make the process work, Mitalipov says he modified more than a dozen steps in the process that proved successful with sheep and other species.

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