Author Topic: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK  (Read 3048 times)

Woefuldane_Organic_Dairy

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Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« on: January 10, 2013, 10:59:54 AM »
My name is Henry, I currently run a shop which specialises in our own range of un-pasteurised organic hard, mould ripened, smoked and blue cheese as well as a selection of other interesting food & drink.

While that is my day-to-day profession I have not joined to relentlessly plug the shop, honest!

My real reason for signing up, like many other forum members, is I am about to start learning how to make cheese. My family have been dairy farmers for 30 years and diversified into cheesemaking almost 20 years ago to add value to our milk. My mother is the cheesemaker and I feel like it would be a great opportunity for me to take her knowledge and take it into the second generation.

I hope my journey into the relatively unknown will be of interest to others, as I am sure yours will be to me.

Henry.

stinkymccheese

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2013, 12:23:19 PM »
Welcome Henry!

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2013, 12:31:07 PM »
Hi Henry!  Welcome and do post photos of your shop and cheeses please!!!!  Would love to see.  Oh, and cheese making rooms and aging caves/rooms are also always of interest too!!!!!  What are the cheeses you are currently making and do you have ideas of a type of cheese you'd like to learn and add to your lineup?

Offline H-K-J

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2013, 02:33:37 PM »
Welcome to the forum ^-^
And what Tiarella said ;)
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Woefuldane_Organic_Dairy

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2013, 04:11:02 PM »
Quote
Welcome and do post photos of your shop and cheeses please!!!!  Would love to see.


The cheese are available to see in all their glory on the 'our cheeses' section of the website. If you hover about that tab then a drop down list appears. www.woefuldanedairy.co.uk/

Quote
Would love to see.  Oh, and cheese making rooms and aging caves/rooms are also always of interest too!!!!!


I'm afraid I will have to link you here too because our web designers set up the Flikr account and failed to give me the password -im not even allowed to link my own photos :/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/83050888@N02/


My aim this year is to have made at least one batch of each of the cheeses in our range. It will by no means mean I can make them on my own but my initial foray into the world of chessemaking is mainly to allow me to
offer more of a complete buy-from-the-producer experience to my customers. We also make yogurt, butter, cream & yogurt and intend to start making hard & soft goats cheese this year. If we sell absolutely none of our milk to the commercial dairies, at a loss, then we will have fulfilled our aim.... Its not so far away  :D
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 04:26:16 PM by Woefuldane_Organic_Dairy »

Tomer1

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2013, 05:14:09 PM »
Quote
Hampton Blue
Quote
“Ive never seen anything that blue before!”
   ^-^

How on earth did you create a cheese so moldy in under 4 weeks?  ;D    is it some kind of hybrid where you combine mature cheese with young cheese and repress it?

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2013, 05:40:25 PM »
Wow, cool!  Instant photos!!  Thank you! ;D  Looks SO lovely, both the place and the cheeses.  Congratulations on it all.  Look forward to hearing more from you and seeing what you create.  Do chronicle your experiences there with learning the different cheeses. 

Offline H-K-J

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2013, 07:21:43 PM »
WOW!! Nice 8)
I want to know how this is made :P
   MMMmmmmmmMmM!!!
Never hit a man with glasses, use a baseball bat!
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tnbquilt

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2013, 11:20:36 PM »
I enjoyed the pictures. You live in cotswolds, do you make a cotswold too? I'd like to have an authentic description of cotswold

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2013, 11:25:13 PM »
Photos looks great!  Welcome to the forum.  I would also like to know how to make Hampton Blue.  ???

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Hampton Blue is made in Cheshire using Cheshire milk. The cheese is made by adding blue mould to selected Cheshire curds. The curd gets hand-filled in a traditional manner into round moulds. It matures in our ripening rooms for 12 weeks to develop the distinctive rind and blue veining for a piquant nutty flavour with a creamy body.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2013, 11:30:23 PM by Al Lewis »
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hoeklijn

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2013, 07:29:18 AM »
Welcome Henry from the neighbourhood of Gouda.
Nice website and lovely cheeses there. Love to visit the Cotswolds one day because I hear so much beautiful things about it.
A friend of ours is visiting the UK quite often and she always brings me some local cheeses and in exchange she gets some of mine.
When she was going to visit the Cotswolds I asked her to bring me some Cotswold cheese, because I had some recipes with that name.
She could not find it... Later it turned out to be a kind of nick name for Double Gloucester with onions and chives...

Woefuldane_Organic_Dairy

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2013, 10:37:46 AM »
Quote
Hampton Blue is made in Cheshire using Cheshire milk. The cheese is made by adding blue mould to selected Cheshire curds. The curd gets hand-filled in a traditional manner into round moulds. It matures in our ripening rooms for 12 weeks to develop the distinctive rind and blue veining for a piquant nutty flavour with a creamy body.

Ooooof, I didn't expect to have to explain this.... We have been making Hampton Blue for nearly 5 years now but the company who makes the cheese detailed above (their blue cheese under the same name) have been making theirs for around 3. They are a huge dairy so if push came to shove i can imagine they would not be over the moon that two cheese were being made under the same name. Luckily, as yet, push has not come to shove!

As for the questions regarding the hasty development of the Roquefort Mould.... With my limited scientific/cheesemaking knowledge i can tell you that due to the 'loose' nature of the curd, the cheeses high moisture content and our ripening facilities, that level of blue is consistently visible from batch to batch over roughly a 4 week period. I say roughly because during summer it can be sooner, and during the cold winter months it can take longer. 

Woefuldane_Organic_Dairy

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2013, 11:49:25 AM »
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I enjoyed the pictures. You live in cotswolds, do you make a cotswold too? I'd like to have an authentic description of cotswold

Call us old fashioned (because we are ;D ) but we have never really gone in for flavour added cheeses.


Other news, we just placed our first order for 400 litres of goats milk from a local producer. They cannot spare any until March but I will keep everyone up to date with the results :)

Woefuldane_Organic_Dairy

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #13 on: January 12, 2013, 09:55:30 AM »
If you are into social networking

Like me www.facebook.com/award.winning.cheeses

Follow me www.twitter.com/woefuldanedairy

I'm not the most proactive but I often put pics of the cows, cheeses, shop ect ect on there and do the odd giveaway too ;)

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Re: Hello from The Cotswolds, UK
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2013, 10:35:22 PM »
Henry,

I was a little late in seeing your post, but wanted to give a 'welcome' also. Not only do you have a beautiful website, lovely cheeses (I see that your Hampton Blue can be ready in as little as 2 weeks--wow!) and a village location that I will definitely put on my 'must see' list when I visit England.  I will stop by for cheese tasting, some of that crusty bread I see on the signage, cider and whatever else.  If you or any of your family ever makes it out to California, let me know in advance and we will take you on a wine tour.  We have relatives in winemaking and enjoy visitors from abroad as much as meeting folks when we travel.

What cheeses do you plan on making with the goat milk when you get it, or are you going to market the milk itself?

Kitren
before goats, store bought milk = chevre & feta, with goats, infinite possibilities, goatie love, lotta work cleaning out the barn!