12 weeks post surgery and things are going well ? Walking is getting easier every day and I’ve been back behind the wheel of the car which is a big relief. We live in a tiny village and so not being able to drive has meant I’ve been completely reliant on others (mainly Ali) to drive me around.

Ali and I have just returned from a road trip. We packed the car, found a spot for our dogs and hit the motorway. Herefordshire was our destination which meant we could meander through the beautiful English countryside, taking our time and experiencing all of the amazing views that we came across. One of the many fabulous reasons to visit Herefordshire is that there are loads of fabulous cheeses made locally! It’s not far to visit Caerphilly, Abergavenny (home to Y-Fenni) and Dorstone (where our lovely Ragstone is made). But the main aim of our ‘holiday’ was to seek out some Single Gloucester makers and Herefordshire just happens to border Gloucestershire ?

Single Gloucester is a young cheese with a mild, delicate flavour and traditionally it would have been made for the farmer’s family to eat whereas the Double Gloucester went to be sold at market. Single Gloucester has a PDO which means that it has a protected designation of origin. This means it can only be made if certain parameters are met. These state that the cheese has to be made in the county of Gloucestershire, using milk which comes at least in part from Gloucester cows. There are only 4 cheesemakers who currently make the cheese – Charles Martell, the Smart Family, Jonathan Crump and Godsells. We already sell Charles’s fabulous cheeses and so we thought we’d go and meet the Smarts and Jonathan as we found we could buy Godsells quite easily so wanted something a bit more exclusive!

Diana Smart and Charles Martell were responsible for gaining the PDO status for their Single Gloucesters. Diana started to make cheese 30 years ago using a traditional recipe. Her son, Rod, is now the cheesemaker and he opens up his cheese house to the public so he can share his passion of his cheeses. We were thrilled to be guided through what goes into making his cheese so special and I for one was fascinated by the huge Victorian cheese presses that he uses! After we’d watched the cheese being hand ladled into its moulds we were treated to a tasting (always the best bit!) and we were given some to take back to the shop for Angela & Jo to try too. Then it was on to Standish Park Farm to meet Jonathan Crump. Jonathan is unique amongst the makers of Single Gloucester in that his is made purely from his own herd of Old Gloucester Cows. As we arrived we could see the cows out grazing in the fields. Old Gloucesters are truly beautiful beasts. They are one of the oldest breeds of cattle in Britain and are a deep brown colour with a very distinctive white stripe which runs along their backs, over the tail and under their bellies. Like every cheesemaker we meet, Jonathan was very hospitable and keen to chat to us about his cheese. It was lovely to hear his passion for both his cheese and his cows. We got to taste his Single and Double Gloucesters and again bought some back to base for the rest of the team.

All in all it was a fabulous trip and the four of us did a perfect amount of sightseeing as well as exploring the fabulous Forest of Dean. To be fair I think our dogs explored more of the Forest than we did although we all had a bit of a shock when we came across a family of wild boar!

So that’s it for now, we’re off to Chapel Row Fayre at the weekend so if you’re in the Bucklebury/Chapel Row area why not pop along for a chat and a spot of cheese!