We finally got to meet award-winning cheesemonger Andy Swinscoe at The Courtyard Dairy near Settle earlier this week. He is at the forefront of a movement championing the uniquely-flavoured ‘proper’ farmhouse cheeses that are growing more and more popular here in the UK.
Of course, part of our time was taken up tasting some of his more local cheeses. One of the most delicious ones was a traditional style Wensleydale – called Fellstone – made by Clare Noblet on her farm at Hutton Roof, in south Cumbria. Husband Tom milks a herd of 80 Friesian cows and the unpasteurised milk is used to make the Fellstone cheese which is then “…aged for three months by which time it has the fresh lemony-lactic flavours of a good Wensleydale, with a supple, firmer texture.”
Andy is also really interested in the history of cheesemaking and we were happy to share some of our research with him and vice versa. He has been developing a fascinating little museum on site which is full of historic objects and information.
Upstairs in the cafe we spotted this little Wensleydale Cheese box.
We look forward to continuing to share information with Andy as the Dairy Days project progresses.
