A STITCH IN TIME

The reason our vintage Cheddar tastes so good is that we follow the same recipe and traditional process that our grandmother Ivy perfected a century ago. She created such good cheese there’s simply no point in changing anything. One of the reasons for this was that she was a pioneer of Cheddar-making, working at a time when cheesemaking grew from a sideline for farmers to a serious business.

We like to think we work hard to produce the very best Cheddar, but when we look back we can see we have it pretty good these days. When Ivy began making Cheddar, everything in the dairy was done by hand. Cheddar was produced in huge, 60lb wheels (round discs) which took a lot of strength and a particular technique to move – and they had to be moved often, as they were pressed overnight and then removed. There was also a lot of cleaning, particularly of the cloths that the Cheddar was wrapped in.

One of the most intensive tasks was “bandaging” the cheese. Before we began maturing our Cheddar in wood, this was the way that the cheese was aged. Each Cheddar was wrapped in strong muslin with a sealing of warmed fat and then kept in place with a bandage that was stitched in to make a tight cover that allowed the Cheddar to age at the correct rate, protected from mould. This task was undertaken not only by Ivy but also by her husband Tom and her children, who would apply themselves to the technique of lacing in the Cheddar with hook needles and thread. These bandages would then be kept on the Cheddar for three months.

Ivy and Tom learned these skills from their parents, and passed them on. We no longer have to stitch up our vintage Cheddar like Ivy had to, but other traditions have taken its place, such as signing the wooden boxes we use to mature the cheese. Like the taste of our Cheddar, it’s a direct link to our grandmother and all she gave us.