I’m 6 days post-op after my ankle fusion and so thought I’d utilise my time by updating my blog! I know it’s been a couple of months but we’ve been so busy in the shop and then I’ve been manic at home trying to prepare for 10 weeks on crutches! As any keep fit fanatic will know the prospect of at least 10 weeks (if not longer) out of action is fairly terrifying so I spent my last week of freedom clocking up the miles in the gym – I think my 84k week is probably my highest total of my fairly short running career. I’ve been advised that I may not be able to run again once the ankle fusion is all healed but never one for heeding advice I’m going to endeavour to get back into the swing of things as soon as I can!

But hey ho, life goes on and I’ve spent the last few days writing notes on all of the 120 or so cheeses that we stock in the shop… it’s been really interesting picturing our cheese counter in my head and making sure that I’ve covered all of the cheese that we stock. I don’t think I’ve missed any out but time will tell!

So what’s been happening in the world of Pangbourne Cheese…?

We’ve recently teamed up with a new cheese supplier – Beillevaire – and are very excited about some of the new cheeses this means we can offer to our customers. Beillevaire are a small, family run, cheesemaker with little dairies scattered throughout France, allowing them to produce different AOC restricted cheeses. We received our first delivery from them this week (I was gutted as I was on house-rest and so couldn’t be in the shop to see it) and their cheeses have all gone down a storm with our customers. We’ve gone for a number of small, individually wrapped cheeses which are simply perfect to take out on a picnic or to joy as part of a cheeseboard. When we originally sampled their cheese to decide what to stock my personal favourite was the Chabichou (an exquisite little goats cheese) but I’m very excited to see what our customers think, especially of the Camembert with Truffles…! We are always striving to find the very best cheeses at the very best prices so that we can offer our customers an unrivalled choice at an affordable price.

Don’t forget it’s Father’s Day on the 18th June… we have the perfect gifts for that hard to buy for dad!

We’re also on the look out for someone to come and work in the shop – ideally every Saturday and then some holiday cover. No experience is at all necessary, we will give thorough training, but a love of cheese is a bit of a must! If you know of anyone who might be of interest we’d love to hear from them.

And finally… we are just in the process of changing our website and are hoping to be able to launch an online ordering facility. This is very much in the planning stage but I’m hoping it will all be up and running quicker than I am!