Thursday was a hugely significant day for Ali and me as it was the 1st anniversary of us completing on our purchase of the shop. It’s been an amazing year, lots of ups, a fair number of downs but I for one wouldn’t go back and change it at all. I’m so grateful to our shop manager, Angela, and our ‘Saturday girl’, Jo, for everything they have taught me, not just about cheese and retail but also about life experiences.
We celebrated on Thursday (as only cheesemongers can) by taking everything out of our cheese counters and restocking them in a completely different order. It’s always good to have a bit of a mix up, although now our customers don’t know where their favourite cheeses are (and neither do we…) It’s all looking great and I’m sure it won’t take too long to get used to the new layout!
We’ve had some new cider in which has proved to be very popular. James & Tim used to run the Catherine Wheel pub in Goring but have switched to the other side of the bar and are now producing a fabulous cider. Bumble Bee cider is made from Somerset apples and is a bit of a bridge between a traditional scrumpy and a dry cider. It proved very popular over the weekend when the lads came in to do some tastings for our customers! They are keen to promote all things Bumble Bee and we love it!
On to the cheeses ?? This week has been all about Vacherin. We waited a couple of weeks longer than some other cheesemongers to release our Vacherin as we wanted to make sure it was at its creamiest, runniest best. Ours is the Vacherin Mont d’Or which comes from the Jura region of Switzerland. You can only buy Vacherin between September and March which is when the cows come down from the hills and are kept indoors, being fed hay rather than grass. This change of diet gives the cheese a wonderful sweet flavour. The final cheese then has a band of spruce put around which helps it to maintain its shape as well as allowing the spruce to slowly permeate into the cheese. It is a delicious cheese and we sell both the cutting version and a small whole cheese. The baby Vacherins are perfect for baking, you can then dip warm bread or vegetables into them – it’s making me hungry just thinking about it!!
We have also just started stocking Barwheys Cheddar which is a delicious, strong Scottish Cheddar made by Tricia Bey at Barwheys Dairy. It’s been lovely this week to have a chat with Tricia to get to know more about her dairy. Barwheys Dairy is in Maybole which is where Robert Burns’ mother, Agnes, was born and indeed just a short distance from where she made cheese. Amazingly I visit SW Scotland fairly frequently and I have often driven past the end of Tricia’s road, equally she knows Pangbourne well as her brother attended Douai Abbey School!
Tricia started in 2008 with 2 Ayrshire cows and has built up her herd to 33 cows. She is a small scale cheesemaker, only making her cheddar and a smoked version. Tricia believes that the Ayrshire milk is perfect for cheesemaking as it is so sweet and aromatic. The cheddar is matured for at least 14 months before it is released so the cheese we are currently selling was made from last summer’s milk. This gives the cheese its lovely deep yellow colour. It’s colour will change as we begin to get in last winter’s cheese as the cows aren’t out eating the grass for as much of the day but instead are being fed indoors. It’s become a permanent member of our cheese counter and we may well try the smoked version too, watch this space!
Festive goods are starting to appear in the shop…. and we’ve just finished ordering our cheeses for delivery in December. It’s a busy time of year for us but we all love it – I for one can’t wait to get my Christmas jumper out!
Christmas order forms will be available in the shop from the end of this week so pop in and grab one!
