Apologies for the lack of blogging action recently but Christmas in retail is a hugely busy time of year and we’ve had all hands to the cheese in the festive build up. We’re really luck in the shop in that we have two fabulous members of staff who work as and when they’re needed. Jonny and Jan fit seamlessly into the established team and we all have great fun even when the queues are out of the door. We’re also very fortunate that our two kids are equally happy to step up to the plate. This year saw Steffan mainly on domestic duties with dog walking and pig feeding featuring on his agenda whilst Tara has been an angel in the shop running to and from our refrigerated van with customer orders as well as restocking shelves. She also makes a wicked cup of tea which is one of my particular requirements! All in all it’s a well oiled machine and hopefully all of our customers were happy with their Christmas cheese. We routinely sell out of cheesy favourites at this time of year with out fabulous local cheeses being the first to go. We were lucky to be able to fulfil pre-orders of Barkham Blue, Sinodun Hill, Waterloo, Wigmore & Bix. Our Christmas order forms are generally available by the beginning of November and all of our local customers know they need to get their orders in early. Hopefully we’ll be taking online orders next time around….watch this space!

 Ali and I always try to go away as soon as the shop shuts for Christmas and this year was no different. We left Angela and Jo to open up for those all important post Christmas orders and jetted off to India. I must say it wasn’t the most relaxing of trips with a packed schedule crammed in but for me, the highlight of the week was seeing Tigers out in the wild. They are truly majestic creatures and I feel so privileged to witnessed them. From a research point of view the trip was a bit of a write off as the Indians aren’t known for their cheesemaking and the cheese marked ‘Emmental’ that I tried in one hotel was distinctly Brie like in taste and texture! The locals informed me that nearly all of their cheese is imported in spite of a healthy milk production. A lot of the milk goes to make yoghurt which I guess goes better with curry!

 So what to expect from us in 2017? There are already plans underway to add to our range in the cheese counter. There are a couple of new local cheesemakers I’m heading off to meet so I’ll be reporting back with any new additions. Our lunchtime fare will start up again this week with soup back in the cauldron and of course our famous cheese rolls will be available. Jan, our resident artist, has produced some fabulous sketches which are in the process of being turned into prints for the wall and lastly we’re hoping to team up with our local wine supplier to do some cheese and wine evenings. All info will be published on our twitter and Facebook pages.

 I’d like to thank all of our customers for their support over the last year and here’s to a very wonderful 2017!