Cheese makers market, Old Beaconsfield

The most beautiful day of the year so far! Scoring sun, Daffodils, blossom, Swallows.
Rural Buckinghamshire was delightfully pretty, and it was the Cheese makers market in Old Beaconsfield (red brick cottages, village green, 15th century church...and white Range Rovers everywhere.).   
Over 40 artisan cheese makers from all over the UK had been invited by Premier Cheese, La Cave à Fromage and The Real Food festival organisers to the event, as well as a noisey Frenchman with some very good Langres (Beaconsfield is twinned with the town of Langres).

Most of the cheeses were very good indeed, but the stars for me were:

• Isle of Mull Cheddar

A raw milk cheese made down the road from Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull. The herd of Ayrshire, Brown Swiss and Friesian cattle are fed partly on Draff - spent grain husks from the distillery, giving the cheese a paler colour then Somerset Cheddars, and yeasty, fruity, acidic flavours to the cheese. We tried a few different ages of the Cheese, the best being a 12month cheese with an initial harsh, salty acidity, but developing into a sweeter, cured-meat aroma.

• Keltic Gold

Made at Whalesborough farm, near Bude in Cornwall, using milk from the farm's own herd. This is a delicous cheese washed in cider, encouraging the development of a sticky, pale orange rind, with a smooth, creamy breakdown. Very fruity, with  sweet and buttery layer beneath the pungent rind and a lighter, slightly acidic centre.

• Cropwell Bishop's hand-ladled Stilton

Cropwell Bishop are one of 6 Dairies licensed to make Stilton cheese. 8 months ago, the Dairy started making a limited amount of hand-ladled Stilton, predominantly for Paxton and Whitfield Paxton and Whitfield which is also made using traditional rennet (one of only two Stilton makers to do this). Hand-ladling the curd from the cheese making vat onto the draining table before milling is the most delicate way to handle the fragile curd, and subsequently results is a creamier, soft textured cheese. The use of traditional calves rennet as opposed to vegetarian rennet produces a cheese with a sweeter flavour and less bitterness. And the cheese was sweet and creamy, no bitterness or harsh acidity. It had a moist smooth texture, softer than most Stiltons.


It was a great day, eating cheese, talking to cheese makers and drinking cider in the sunshine. There should be a cheese market at Welbeck. Or in Stratford.