Lyburn Farm News Page.

January 2005.

As can be seen in the pictures along side the present ripening roon is full to the brim with maturing cheese's. A second room is being built as I write this, to double our capacity. The two young ladys that you see turning cheese's are both form the Southampton General Hospital where they work for Wessex Microbioligy Services. As part of their training they have to come and learn about the production end of cheese making as well as knowing the microbioligy.

We have, on a number of occasions been asked for a good quality butter. Butter is now available from Farmers Markets. For the time being we are selling in a 180grm. pot. Using double cream and not whey cream, we are adding just a small amount of salt, and if you need unsalted butter just ask.

Alongside we have Petra 9th. born 15th November 1992, this cow was our first cow to achieve 100 tonnes of milk in her life time, equivalent to 100,000 litres or 220,000 pinta's.

November 2004.

Stand up the other Mike Smales.

E- mails come and go , as they do, and suddenly an e-mail, from Mike Smales in South Africa. He and Carrie were about to visit England and Ireland for a holiday and would pop in to see us. This they did. Are we related? was the question, as our family tree goes back to the late 1600's, we were able to look at the possibilities, may be 300 years back, but not recently. The ironical thing being, that Mike and Carrie's son Barry and wife Melissa farm near George, in the Cape, and also make cheese from their own cows milk

As another manic pumpkin season unfolds, we find ourselves with reasonably good yields, but disappointingly small pumpkin , mainly due to the cool weather in August . This picture, taken 2 years ago, was a reflection of the sizes we had then, nothing like this, this year. As I write this 25/10/04, we are virtually sold out of pumpkin, the organic Broad Bean seed has arrived for the start of yet another growing year.

September 2004.

Another very successful weekend at the British cheese awards in the grounds of Blenhiem Palce at Woodstock. A total of two Silvers and two Bronze awards represents a good years progress with our products. This level of success is now clearly showing through in sales accross the board. For more details of the cheese awards click the picure to the right. For more detail of the cheeses, Click Here and you will be taken to the cheese page.

More prizes for our cheese at the World Cheese Awards in London at the begining of the month. To the right we have the Lyburn Gold, this was entered into a semi hard class, and won a Silver medal, having been beaten by an American and 2 German cheeses. In a different class for the smaller producer, the Winchester secured a Gold medal, and shared the honours with Dalesford Creamery and an American Goats cheese.

Lyburn Gold

In the region of 100 attended our last open evening, incorperating the Eastleigh Ramblers, more talking than rambling I think, and the Eling Trefoil Guild. With a welcome break in the weather, a good evening was had by all.

Organic vegetables having a good season, not too hot with some wetter periods.

Pumpkins completely out of control, I just hope that once the foliage recedes there are plenty of fruit under there.

Tractors working at Bridge farm, second cut silage, the weather is perfect not a cloud to be seen. This means more good quality silage for the cows this winter, with the result of good quality milk to make the cheese. The milk is so fresh that at 5 am. in the morning, it is in the cow and an hour later it is in the cheese vat, being pasteurised, ready for the days cheesemake.

Cheese tours 2004.

We have already had a number of enquires regarding the very popular cheese tours and suppers, held at the farm in 2003, in conjunction with the Hampshire Food Festival. There is one more date for this year and it is the 22nd September. Book either by e-mail link, to the right, or by phone 01794 390451

June 2004.
More good news for the cheesemakers, two second prizes in the cheese competitions. The Garlic and Nettle came second to Cornish Yarg in the flavour added class, and the Smoked came second to Ashley Chase.

After a late, wet, start the maize has now gone off like a rocket. Here we see a 60 acre field, late in the evening. Silage making also going well, plenty of good quality grass now in the clamp and not too wet. The new vat now progressing well, taken a while to get used to it, and having to run flat out to get caught up a bit as we are over sold on some lines.

April 2004.

We have applied for a second Rural Enterprise Scheme Gant, under the Goverment's ERDP program, and have been successful. This means that phase 3 can now move ahead.
A new cheese vat, the old 700 litre vat now too small, has now been taken out to be replaced by a much larger vat. Similar to the old one but much longer. Only one way in and that is through the side wall, and tipped on its side, weighs about half a ton, so was a bit of a struggle to move it. We have had to shut down for the week or two, the test run with water has gone well, and ready to start agian on the 26th. April. We will probably retain the old vat and put it to good use as a brine tank.

April 2004

Late evening down at Bridge farm, now part of Lyburn Farm. Heifers now finally out to grass much to their relief. Date, 9th April and grass growth very slow, the nights are still cold and as you can see from the setting sun, another frost tonight. Cows are out by day, but are going to be in, nights for some time yet. Cheese production running flat out at the moment, there is bigger cheese vat on the way in a few weeks time, and inevitably we will be shut down for a while, while we instal it.

March 2004

Students from the Southampton Catering College, visit Lyburn Cheese, to learn about the cheese making process, watch it being made and how the milk is produced on the farm. To discuss the issues of vegetarian rennet, pasteurisation and maturation. Then back to the college with the various types of cheese to use in there own imaginative way. More to come on this one

January 2004.

Our more recent cheese Winchester, is now enjoying some considersble success. We are now having to make more, but inevitably it is taking 9 months to ripen them. As a result we are now having to ration Winchester, and for those waiting, please bear with us.

November 2003
More good news for our three principal cheeses. We have repeated the success of last month, at the British cheese awards. Our Lyburn Gold picking up a Silver and the mature version, Winchester, collecting a Bronze. The Garlic and Nettle has also done well to collect a Bronze. All three cheeses are now being consistantly placed when entered in competitons, which is helping to consolidate our position as having a quality product on offer. The world cheese awards are held at Olympia, in London each year and details can be accessed by clicking on the adjacent picture.

October 2003.

Now into a very intense two weeks of activity. Apart from making cheese this farm grows a number of vegetables. The humble pumpkin is the subject of some substantial activity in the last two weeks of October. Here, outside the farm shop, the contrasts of colour are spectacular. and the shop will be open every day of the last week of October. Pumpkin cheese is not on the the horizon, however. More details on the pumpkin go to www.pumpkin-growers.co.uk

The British cheese awards, held at Blenheim Palace Oxfordshire, provide an opportunity for cheese makers large and small to come together and compete in a number of competitions, that will lead to the best cheese in the UK and Ireland. For us there are two more awards. Particularly pleasing is a Silver for our Lyburn Gold. In the class Modern British, 3/6month, with an entry of 32 in the class, one Gold was presented to Llanboidy Cheesemakers, and 2 Silver, one to Anstey's of Worcester and the second to ourselves.

The second award was a Bronze for our more recently released cheese, Lyburn Mature, now to be re-named Winchester. In recent months we have slowly trickled out these 9 month cheeses, with considersable success. The change in name will inevitably cause some confusion for the time being, but with relatively small numbers available, it should not be too much of a problem. For all the details go to the .www.thecheeseweb.co.uk .

September is proving to be a busy month this year. Celebrated Australian chef Jonathan Smales visits Lyburn Cheese, with his cheese making mother Angie, sister Tahli and cousin Julia. Jonathan, with a great career ahead of him, is checking out the culinary delights of Southern England as well as Germany, Paris and Florence.

More good news for the Garlic and Nettle, it just gets better. The cheese has won it's first major prize at the Frome Cheese Show at the beginning of September. There was a considerable entry in the flavoured cheese class and to come first was no mean feat. The prize confirms the popularity and support it has across a wide range of outlets.

The pumpkin harvest has come early this year. Due to the spell of extremely hot weather the pumpkins, that have had an exellent growing season are now ripening much earlier that usual. The whole crop is now almost completely orange. We have now started to cut them and provided we treat them carefully most of them will survive until halloween.

New product. The older mature version of the Lyburn Gold, as yet un-named, is now becoming available in greater numbers. It has been in the market place for about 4 months and is starting to make its mark. Althought the make is not entirely the same as the Gold, it is similar, and we have chosen to sell it at about 9 months. This cheese has a much fuller flavour and with it a higher dry matter, yet retaining the popular creamy texture of the Lyburn Gold. Numbers are limited at the moment, but will increase with time.

The 10th British Cheese Awards and the Great British Cheese Festival is going be held in 11 acres of parkland landscaped by "Capability" Brown, against a backdrop of Blenheim Palace, one of Britain's most historic sites. Only 12 miles from the M40, 8 miles from Oxford and 10 minutes from the A34, record numbers of visitors are expected this year. For those that would like more detail go to www.thecheeseweb.co.uk . The event will be open to public on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th September. For those that enjoy their cheese this is not to be missed.

After all the the rain of the winter it has now come dry, not particularly warm, but for the cows an opportunity to get them out to some grass. Only for a few hours a day, as we will need some warm rain to get the grass really growing, there is still plenty of food in the silage pits and a huge clamp of beet, yet to be eaten.

Along with all the other members of the Specialist Cheesemakers, we have now been certified by ADAS, the Food Standards Agency and our local Environmental Health Department.

Having had a very good run up to Christmas, it was clear that we have not enough room and capacity to ripen our cheese. The weather has been awful, so we have had plenty of time to put in a new ripening store. The panels are all secondhand but in good order and fairly easy to erect, another two days and the main body of the store will be finished. This is not the night shift, but thick cloud cover.

A Pumpkin and Cheese weekend.

The farm shop will be open all weekend to cater for the needs of those that have not yet secured their pumpkins. This is a birds eye view of the shop area. The pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes. The small ones are in short supply this year but the large ones are plentiful, up to a weight of 25lb.

This year the British Cheese Awards 2002 have moved to Chipping Campden, a suitable successor to Stow, and a delightful town to visit.

As far as we were concerned another good result. We have managed to repeat our Silver award for the Garlic and Nettle. Tim has made a few changes to it from last year so it is not exactly the same as it was, and is even more popular at Farmers Markets.

Emsworth four day food festival, was I would think, a huge success. We did the Friday and Saturday and were sold out by 2pm both days. Those of you that missed out, will now be able to get our cheeses from Evelyn Pearce's, Emsworth Deli in the village

We have now opened the cheese shop on the end of the new creamery. For the time being we will be only selling our own cheeses, the varieties of which will grow over time. Along side the cheese, we will sell our own Organic, in season, vegetables. The opening times of the shop are:
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons, 2-00pm until 4-30 pm.

Here we see a trolley full of smoked cheeses. We do not smoke them here on the farm as we have no equipment , but they go to a local smokery, Fjordling, run by Andrew and Susan Espir at Pitton.

After some delays and problems, mainly mechanical, all is now working well. We needed more cheese moulds, and needed to retain the same shape cheese as we originaly started with, so have tried a number of different suppliers, and the one you see in the adjacent picture will do nicely.

The new creamery has now been finished. All the plant and equipment has been installed cleaned and cleaned again and now tested. All is well, there were just a few gremlins to sort out but nothing very serious. The new vat that we had made by a local firm works well, but trying to buy new cheese moulds is another story.

The floor is being laid by a company from Yorkshire. It has to be extremely hard wearing, resistant to both whey and chemicals, plus good runs to the drains. Needless to say it comes at a cost.

Still lucky with the weather, Concrete has gone down without any threat from the frost, and the internal structure is up in no time at all. Waterside Installations, have done a tremendous job, with only windows and doors left to put in.

The building for the new creamery is now in place, helped by some very dry weather, had it been the same time last year we would never have coped, the ground was so wet.

Having only made cheese for some 12 months, it was with some trepidation that we entered 3 of our cheeses. Our rewards for nearly 2 years hard work by all, was:

Gold for the Lyburn Gold,
Silver for the Garlic and Nettle,
Bronze for the Lyburn Smoked.

To say that this level of success was unexpected is an understatement, however it does confirm the large success that these cheeses have found at Farmers markets and locally.