Andrew's tour of the South East Champions of cheese

Date Published:

31/10/2008

Lyn added High Weald Dairy to the Map saying: "They make great cheeses using sheep's milk and organic cow's milk from the farm." I donned the lab coat and once more entered the fascinating world of cheese production

Sarah and Mark Hardy's farm nestles in the High Weald, an area of outstanding natural beauty. It's good pasture for the organic herd of cattle on the farm whose milk goes to make the cheese. In fact High Weald's Organic Ashdown Foresters Smoked took gold in the British Cheese Awards and won its class of 'best flavour added cheese'. With some of Mark and Sarah's other cheeses bringing home medals it's good news all round. I get to try some: the smoking is light and delicate and used with such finesse that it allows the cheese to speak for itself.

Mark then takes me on a tour of the factory. I love the contrast in cheese production between a rough outdoors farmyard and the immaculate sterile production units. In here it's all stainless steel and pipes and tanks, and in one large tank there are some beautiful quivering curds and whey that will go towards making St Giles. The cheese makers are adding the curds and whey from a large tank where the pasteurised milk has had the rennet culture added to it. The whey will be drawn off and go into a tank and then off to a local pig farmer. The curds will be lightly pressed over night, then placed into molds and left to set.

A recipe for rind

This is a recently new cheese for Mark and the team; it's a Continental style, semi soft cheese. "We wanted something similar to a Port Salut or Saint Paulin cheese," says Mark. The tricky bit came in getting the traditional orange colour on the rind. "Because it's organic we couldn't use annatto. We tried beetroot, which gave a lovely colour but eventually seeped into the cheese; we also experimented with raspberries, but in the end found that a paste of organic carrots worked best," he says. There's nothing like this in the UK to Mark's knowledge and the new cheese took bronze at the 2008 British Cheese Awards.

There's also a good selection of cheeses made from sheep's milk at the diary. Duddleswade, Sussex Slipcote, a halloumi and finally a 'Greek style' cheese (read Feta, only it's not allowed to be called feta because it's not made in Greece). Sheep's milk cheese is a popular choice for those who are lactose intolerant. The Slipcotes in particular lend themselves to taking on other flavours, the most interesting of which is a version flavoured with mint. "If you think about it lamb and mint are great together...," says Mark.

Finally we end up in the newly built storeroom, where the cheeses are slowly maturing. They have a lovely patina of battleship grey meets heather blue mould forming on their surface. This is essential for flavour but is washed off prior to packaging and selling. On one shelf are truckles of organic Tremains Cheddar with red peppercorns, ready for the Christmas market. Mark would have started making these three months ago in mid-summer when most people's minds aren't focused on Christmas. "It's a slow business cheese making," he says.

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