I’ve been down to Somerset this week to pick up cheeses. We have 4 cheesemakers who I visit every 6 weeks or so: Montgomery Cheddar, Batch Farm, Westcombe Dairy and White Lake Cheese. As you’d expect from Somerset the majority of the cheeses are cheddars but there are some other gems thrown in!
Jamie Montgomery is often referred to as the King of the Cheddar. His mature West Country Farmhouse Cheddar is 12 months old when I collect it. It is an unpasteurised, traditional cloth bound Cheddar which has a deep, nutty flavour. It is probably my favourite Cheddar. In fact Ali and I like it so much that we had a ring of it as a base for our wedding cake!
From Montgomery’s it’s a short drive cross country to visit the Westcombe Dairy. I always pick up a quarter of their delicious traditional Cheddar but sometimes I also add some Duckett’s Caerphilly to my order. Although Caerphilly is traditionally a Welsh cheese, it’s been made in the West Country for over 100 years. The Duckett’s Caerphilly has a lovely fresh taste and you can almost taste the grass that the cows were munching on when they produced the milk.
My journey then takes me a couple of miles down the road to Batch Farm. The Gould family have been making creamy cheddars on their farm near Glastonbury for 50 years. We stock 2 of their cheddars – our ‘house’ cheddar which is their Farmhouse Mature and is very popular although their Extra Tasty cheddar, which is matured for longer, is our best seller. I’ve placed an order for some of their mini cheddar truckles (by mini I mean 2kgs…!) and so I had a peek at them in the maturing rooms, they’re looking good and will be perfect for Christmas ?
My last stop is at White Lake Cheese. Pete and his team on the farm produce some of our favourite goats’ cheeses as well as a couple of our Guernsey milk cheeses. Pete’s Rustic Rachel is our best selling hard goats’ cheese and it’s so good that even people who don’t like goats’ cheese tend to buy it. We also stock Pete’s Longbow and Nancy which are crumbly cheeses as well as his ash covered goats’ log, Driftwood. I picked up a new cheese from him this week which is the Goddess. This is a semi-soft curd cheese which is made from Guernsey milk and then washed in Somerset Cider. It is delicious and goes done very well with our ciders here in the shop ??. We also stock Pete’s spongy Guernsey cheese called Morn Dew and his Sheep Rustler, both are delicious!
All in all my trip down to Somerset and back was as delightful as ever. I love getting out to meet some of the cheesemakers and it’s always lovely to see the autumn leaves on the trees ?