We are fast approaching our busiest couple of weeks of the year and things are already beginning to ramp up in the shop. I love December and Christmas in particular – it’s always a bit nerve-racking as I had to pre-order most of our cheese at least 2 months ago and at that point I had no indication of the sort of things that people might want to buy from us. I have records of every cheese I have ordered, as well as every customer order, from the last 10 years and there’s always a sort of trend but you can never predict exactly what’s going to be needed. Cheese has a relatively short shelf life so I have to make as accurate a guess as possible. Fingers crossed that we have enough of the right cheese this year!

Since taking my American cheese exams this year, I chat to a lot of cheesemongers in the US. This week has been Thanksgiving and so they have all been preparing for it like we do for Christmas. The relief that it’s now over has been palpable. To help keep everyone motivated we recently compiled a Holiday Monger Mixtape of all of our favourite songs, it’s a real eclectic mixture. I never thought I’d have a playlist on my phone of cheesemonger hits, but it makes me smile every time I scroll through it.

I’m always intrigued as to whether or not other cheesemongers around the world experience the same exciting build-up to Christmas as we do. I was chatting to a couple of European cheesemongers whilst I was in Portugal for the World Cheese Awards and learnt that over Christmas in the Netherlands people often eat Gouda by candlelight, served with mulled wine and spiced bread. In France, Christmas Eve is known as “Le Réveillon” and it is when the main meal of the holidays is eaten. The cheese course traditionally features only French cheeses and is a key part of the celebrations. Finally in Greece they celebrate New Year’s Eve by eating Kasseropita (a cheese pie). This savoury pie symbolises good fortune and is made using Kasseri PDO cheese. This is a semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese which can have some goats’ milk added. I’m going to try to find a recipe for it and add it to our website (as well as find a substitute for the Kasseri as I’ve not seen it for sale here at all).

But what of things back here? Life in Pangbourne has been very jolly this week. We’ve had loads of people coming in to place their Christmas cheese orders (it’s not too late if you still need to do yours – deadline day is the 8th December) and the shop is looking very festive. Usually I’m confined to barracks at this time of year but I’m off to the Guild of Fine Food in Dorset on Thursday to do an extra day’s cheese judging. Following the issues with the British cheeses at the World Cheese Awards, the Guild has contacted all of the cheesemakers involved and they are sending their cheeses to be judged this week. I’m so pleased that the Guild is making this happen, I spoke to one of our cheesemakers on Friday and he said the whole situation had been heart breaking but he had spent a couple of days selecting his best cheeses to send in. At least the cheeses will have a chance to earn the recognition that they deserve.

This week also sees the traditional Pangbourne late night opening evening. If you’re in the area on Friday 6th December most of the shops will be staying open for a few extra hours. We will be open until 8pm and I think there’ll be some mulled wine on offer for anyone who fancies it.

All that is left for me to say is that I hope the next few weeks bring joy to everyone and that you have a very Merry Christmas.