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 Cheesemaking
Since we built the cheese dairy some 20 years ago we decided to
concentrate on that side of the business and to buy in the milk we
needed. Over time we have built up a relationship with our milk
producers who endeavour to provide milk in the quantity and quality
necessary to produce good cheese. We believe that the quality of the
milk is as important as the skill of the cheesemaker. This is dependent
on various factors but especially the health and welfare of the animals;
the breeding of the animals; their nutrition and the pasture they graze
upon. Our farmers are not Organic in the strictest sense but certainly
“low input”.
Making cheese is in no way similar to cooking: the cheesemaker merely
steers the milk in a particular direction guided by the quality of the
milk itself. Cheesemaking is a natural process onto which we impose
certain controls.
Since we are not milk producers ourselves we deem it necessary to
pasteurize all the milk we use. We use the low temperature, long hold
system as this leaves more beneficial enzymes in the milk.
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Beenleigh Blue
Beenleigh Blue is made using milk from Orchid Meadow farm near
Shaftesbury. This farm is run organically and supplies milk to several
cheese and yogurt makers. The sheep are divided into different flocks
which enables milk to be produced almost all year round. We usually only
take the milk in the Spring when there is sufficient surplus available.
During this period we make as much Beenleigh as we can and then keep
back some of it at a colder temperature so our supplies should last
almost all year round. (We may run out in early Spring). The nature of
the cheese varies greatly over the season. The first cheeses for sale in
June are very light, fresh, and quite crumbly whereas the older cheeses
develop significantly greater depth of flavour and become richer and
creamier.
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Harbourne Blue
Harbourne Blue is made using the milk of Sue and Will Thompson-Coon’s
goats farmed at Buckfast on the edge of Dartmoor. The goats free-range
the permanent pastures from April to November. Half the herd is kidded
every spring with the others milking through, this means there is some
milk all year round though significantly less in the winter. Harbourne
Blue is also quite variable over the season, occasionally it can be very
strong but more often it has a sweet, clean, fresh taste.
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Devon Blue
Devon Blue is made using Friesian cows’ milk collected locally in the
South Hams. We are able to fit the production of this around the other
two cheeses as this milk comes from a cooperative. There seem to be
fewer seasonal differences in Devon Blue . It has a clean, buttery,
rounded depth of flavour.
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