Cheese making from start to finnish, crops, milk, and the making of cheese.

This page has been constructed to tell the consumer about who does what, and gives a very basic description of what happens on the farm and the progress of the milk, through to the finished cheese. For those of you that know all about cheese making you can skip this page.

The Cream team.
The whole operation of producing cheese is very much a team effort. Phil has been at the farm a long time now and knows each of the cows as individuals. His job, as herdsman, is to produce clean wholesome, good quality milk with low cell counts. Anna, will then use her skills as a cheesemaker, to turn the milk into curds. Then, eventually cheese, over a period of 10 weeks to 16 months. Judy's role is overseeing packing and distribution, not to mention running the office, walking the dogs and dealing with Uncle Tom Cobbly and all. I tend to fill in where ever needed, but normally improving infrastructure and handle the sales.

The cows.
The existing dairy herd was established here in 1969, but cows will have been milked on the farm for years, and the old cow byre with it's hay loft above, that would have taken 10 cows, is now the farm office.There are 180 pedigree Freisian Holstein cows in total, in summer they graze the green pastures of the valley, and in the winter it is too wet to stay out.

So they come into the farmstead, where they consume large quantities of grass and maize silage, hay and fodder beet. The cows all have pedigree names and also a freeze brand to make their identification easier. They calve once a year and the heifer calves are all kept, and some of the families can be traced back some 30 years.

The Dairy
The cows are milked twice a day through a herringbone milking parlour. Here you see Phil putting the clusters on a cow. It takes about 2 or more hours to milk them all, and the milk is quickly refrigerated and passes into a large tank, that holds the milk at a temperature of 4 ° C. to keep it fresh. It will stay there until it is taken to the cheese plant or transported to the factory to be bottled.

Cheese making.
Once in the cheese plant the milk is quickly pasteurised and then cooled again. Anna will then add the starter to create the ideal conditions for the rennet. When the rennet is added, it has the effect of turning the milk into a block of soft curd just like a blancmange, and then just at the right moment, the curds are cut to release the whey. Again times and temperatures are critical and this is where the skill of the cheesemaker comes in, Paul has to know exactly when to put the curds into the moulds.

The Press.

The large white bowls or containers are actually the cheese moulds. The curds are taken form the vat and the moulds are filled almost to overflowing, the lids are then placed on the top of the mould, and they are then placed in the two presses, stacked one on top of the other. The rams at the top of the picture are then activated by air pressure, and then the curds take the form of the cheese, that you are familiar with.

The Brine tank.

The next day the cheese is turned out of the moulds, and the individual cheeses are floated in a large brine tank, as we don't add salt to the cheese during the making. They will stay in the tank until we think that they have taken on board enough salt and then are allowed to dry in the drying room for about 10 days.

Cheese ripening.
To get the cheeses to ripen, they are stacked on shelves or racks, with plenty of air flow around them. They are then turned on a regular basis, to ensure even ripening, and that they do not dry out. The ripening rooms, ( we are a bit short on caves in the New Forest) have to be kept at a certain temperature and a constant humidity, so that the cheeses ripen at the correct speed for the ensuing period. Here you see a selection of cheeses in the ripening room. These have been here for some 7 months as they are being ripened on for Winchester's

The Moment of Truth.
The critical moment 3 months later when all the batches get graded. How good are they, what are the strong points and the weak points. Every batch can be slightly different to the previous, what do they smell like , what is the dry matter, have they maintained their shape, and the final factor, what do they taste like.