Price range: £5.00 through £30.00
Witheridge is an organic Oxfordshire hard cheese matured wrapped in hay from Nettlebed Creamery’s own farm. Buttery and nutty with a lovely savoury depth, its rustic rind brings distinctive grassy, earthy aromas to this wonderfully unusual British cheese.
Witheridge is the hard cheese in Nettlebed Creamery’s range, but there’s something rather unusual about the way it’s matured: it’s wrapped in hay grown on the farm itself.
Made from organic cow’s milk near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, Witheridge is firm, buttery and savoury, with a natural rind and lovely nutty flavours that develop during maturation.
The hay gives it an immediately distinctive appearance, but it isn’t simply there to make the cheese look pretty. It creates its own little environment around the rind as the cheese matures, contributing to the earthy, grassy aromas that make Witheridge so recognisable.
Bix has its extra cream, Highmoor has its washed rind and Witheridge gets tucked up in hay. Nettlebed certainly doesn’t make three versions of the same cheese.
Cheesemakers have been wrapping and maturing cheeses in all sorts of things for generations — leaves, cloth, bark, ash and, in the case of Witheridge, hay.
The hay used for Witheridge comes from Nettlebed’s own organic farm. The cheese is wrapped before being left to mature, creating a distinctive microclimate around the rind as it develops.
Over time the rind becomes natural and rustic, with grassy, earthy aromas sitting alongside the buttery paste underneath.
It’s an unusual maturation technique, particularly amongst British hard cheeses, and one of those lovely examples of a cheesemaker looking at what they already have around them and asking, what happens if we try this?
Thankfully, in this case, the answer was very good cheese.
Witheridge takes its name from a nearby Oxfordshire hill and is made by Rose Grimond and the team at Nettlebed Creamery.
The organic cow’s milk is transformed into a firm cheese before the wheels are wrapped in hay and allowed to mature for several months.
During that time, the cheese develops both in texture and flavour. The paste becomes firmer and more savoury while the rind develops its own earthy character.
And because cheese is a living, changing food, no two pieces are ever going to be completely identical. The hay can look different, the rind can look a little wild and the flavours will continue to evolve as the cheese matures.
That’s exactly as it should be.
Cut through the hay-covered rind and you’ll find a lovely pale golden paste underneath. The texture is firm but not dry, with a smooth, almost creamy quality once the cheese has had enough time out of the fridge.
The aroma is one of my favourite things about Witheridge. There’s something grassy and earthy from the rind, with gentle sweet, dried-hay aromas alongside it.
Taste the paste itself and you get creamy, buttery flavours first, followed by nuttiness and a lovely savoury depth. There’s a gentle sweetness too, which sometimes reminds me more of an Alpine-style cheese than a traditional British hard cheese.
And here’s the slightly unusual bit: you’re meant to eat the rind, hay and all. Don’t sit there carefully picking every last piece of hay off before you tuck in. Try a little of the rind with the paste and you’ll get those grassy, earthy flavours alongside the buttery cheese. It might feel slightly odd eating hay, but that’s all part of the Witheridge experience!
Jen’s note: If you’re ever near Nettlebed Creamery, they’ve mapped out some lovely local walks — and, more importantly, there’s a café waiting for you afterwards with one of their famous cheese toasties. A walk followed by melted cheese seems like a perfectly sensible day out to me.
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Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, salt, starter cultures, rennet, rind: hay
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
