We have had a fantastic 10 days away on safari in South Africa. Those of you who read my blog often will know that my dad is a huge inspiration to me (he reads these newsletters so I hope he’s not blushing too much right now…) We had the opportunity to spend some time with him and his wife – we haven’t had a holiday with just the four of us before but it worked brilliantly! I hope this will be the first of many memorable trips to come. Africa is one of my favourite places to visit and being able to share the experience has been fantastic. Li Ping, my step mum, had never visited Africa before and seeing the amazing wildlife through her excited eyes has been lovely. Our days have been filled with magnificent sights and the people we’ve met were all so friendly. We stayed in two very different lodges and everything was perfect. In fact the second place we stayed was probably the best safari experience we’ve ever had.

Obviously being me I had to experience the local cheese culture… To be honest it wasn’t really much to write home about! The cheeses we tried were heavily Dutch influenced with flavoured Goudas in abundance. There was one soft goats cheese that had been rolled in sesame seeds which added a pleasant crunch but unfortunately everything else was fairly bland. Ali and my dad both liked the apricot chutney especially alongside the goats cheese and that was probably the highlight of our cheeseboard. The lodge kindly gave me their supplier information so I could look up a bit more information on the cheeses and, as a company, they offered a large range of small, artisan cheeses but it was a shame that the selection they sent to the lodge was very generic. I guess we’ll just have to go back another time and discover the artisan cheeses for ourselves! (Maybe alongside a “research” trip to the winelands…)

But what’s been happening in Pangbourne since I last wrote? We’ve had a couple of guest cheeses in which have been going down well. We’ve also been sourcing some different French cheeses to replace those that are currently banned by the UK. To cut a long story short, all raw cows milk cheeses from France and Italy are not allowed to be imported at the moment. Should you want to learn more about this you can read my article here. We have found a pasteurised Brie made by the Dongé family who make our Brie de Meaux PDO and we’ve also got some very oozy pasteurised Camembert. It’s been a challenging couple of months but hopefully the ban will be lifted soon.

I’m very excited to reveal that September’s guest hard cheese is going to be Stonebeck. This is a wonderful raw milk Wensleydale cheese made in Nidderdale, Yorkshire. All of the milk comes from Northern Dairy Shorthorns which are native to the Yorkshire Dales. The cheese itself is buttery with a rich, complex flavour that develops as the cheese matures. It hasn’t hit the counter yet but the cheeses are due in to us this week.

We have received some sad cheesy news  – Martin who makes the amazing Wrekin Blue I wrote about after we’d visited him in Shropshire has let us know that he’s hanging up his white cheesemaker wellies. Wrekin Blue has been hugely popular since we introduced it but once our current stock has gone that will be it forever. It’s always sad to see new favourites disappear but we wish Martin and his family all the best in the next phase of their lives. I’ll be on the look out for another British, raw milk blue to replace it with so watch this space!

That’s about it from me for now. We landed at 5.30 this morning and I always stay up on flights so I’ve not slept for 40 hours… but a couple of good nights sleep will set me up for the week ahead. I love going away but it’s always nice to come home.