Living in a small town you get to know most of the people, either by name or from running into them in the shops or downtown. One of our downtown businesses is Southern Alpaca Connection which I wrote about a couple of years ago. You can read by thoughts here. After spending that Friday afternoon tasting wine and getting to know George, Judy and Dawn, I did several cheese and wine tastings with them on Friday evenings for Lavonia’s Happy Hour. Dawn and I became friends and I “met” (via Twitter) her boy friend, Geoff Adams-Spink, an Englishman living in London. A few months before COVID, Dawn spent several weeks in London with Geoff and upon her return graced me with a bag of raw milk goodies from Neal’s Yard Dairy at the Borough Market. Several were cheddars which I reviewed in an overview of cheddars. She also brought me a disk of St. Jude that is simply luscious; silky, creamy and savory with umami notes. The texture is fluffy like a fancy pudding. The NYD website compares the texture to mousse. After COVID travel restrictions loosened, Dawn moved to London and she and Geoff married.
Dawn recently came home to visit family and especially her new grand babies. Geoff “offered” her services again to bring me another bag of English and European cheeses. In texting with Geoff I learned he and Dawn have a membership with food purveyor and home delivery service, Abel and Cole. Geoff suggested I check out their cheese offerings, which after I did a happy dance. Many of their cheeses are from small producers and not widely available in the US. I paypaled the equivalent of $100 US Dollars to Geoff with a list of cheeses from the A&C website. My $$ exceeded my list and Geoff made more choices for me. When Dawn arrived, the cheese goodies were beyond my wildest dreams. All organic and many I had never tasted.
The Man is off cheese for awhile leaving more for me… but as many of you know… with cheese, it is best to pace yourself. I decided to start with the short-dated cheeses and gathered a few friends at Sweet Combs of Honey where we enjoyed five of the cheeses from the English “haul”.
First, a little bit about Abel & Cole. After texting with Geoff and perusing the website, I wish we had an A&C around here. What a terrific concept and service – all at reasonable prices. From their website: “Since 1988, we’ve believed that food has the power to save the world. We’re on a mission to make shopping sustainably simple, putting people and our planet first every step of the way.”
Their purpose is “to provide easy ways to help the planet. That’s why we put in all the hard work behind the scenes, from sourcing the finest, organic food to reducing unnecessary packaging, so all you have to do is choose your sustainable, weekly shop. From supporting independent growers and makers to cutting carbon emissions, every organic box that lands on your doorstep makes a world of difference. Combatting climate change is no small feat, and our work will never be done. But together, we really can make big changes feel bite-sized.”
Abel and Cole offer weekly subscription boxes similar to CSA boxes available from small farmers here in the US. A&C deliver and the fee is 1.99 British Pound or less than $5US. If you live within their delivery area, this is an amazing program. In addition to the boxes, you can specialize your deliveries to fit your tastes and needs. And the prices are excellent. (Many of the delivery services here in the US are far more expensive, making them prohibitive for most. I saw a frozen bread subscription service on Instagram this week – for $89 US, you got 4 loaves of frozen bread, 2 different fresh, frozen pastries and 4 croissants… you can make a lot of fresh bread and pasta for eighty-nine bucks.)
You’ll drool when you surf their cheese selection. Our first tasting consisted of 5 cheeses. I had tasted 2 before but 3 were new:
The first we tasted on the board was Sussex Slipcote from High Weald Dairy – 3.25 British Pound – less than $5US. This 100g button of sheep milk cheese was fresh, creamy and tasted like a glass of freshly-squeezed lemonade.
High Weald Dairy in the West Sussex region of England began making sheep milk Halloumi in the 1980s and today makes award-winning cow, sheep and goat milk cheeses. They are a family-owned farm making cheese in the former grain store of the farm. They make both organic and non-organic versions of most of their cheeses and all cheeses are vegetarian friendly. (Check out my extensive list of more than 1000 vegetarian friendly cheeses.)
Next we tasted a Double Gloucester from Lye Cross Farm. I have tasted DG on many occasions but this is my first organic DG. Single and Double Gloucester are traditionally made from the milk of the Gloucester cow. In the 1950s, the breed was almost extinct until Charles Martell gathered 3 of the last 50 Gloucester cows in Gloucester County, revived the breed and began making Single Gloucester, which now has protected status. DG is aged longer than SG and develops a more pronounced savory flavor profile and is firmer than the SG. SG is sold locally while DG is exported and sold widely in the UK and US. Wheels of DG were used in the famous and now defunct Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake.
Since 1952 the Alvis family has been making farmhouse cheese on their Lye Cross Farm, located a few miles from the village of Cheddar in the Somerset region known as West County. John Alvis Senior is still hands-on producing cheese and is the driving force behind FarmLink, a program that shares farm life with school children.
The third cheese on the board was a washed rind cheese from Bath Soft Cheese Company, The Merry Wyfe. Organic and vegetarian friendly, The Merry Wyfe, is washed daily for 4 weeks with a sweet cider made from organic apples grown on the Park Farm, where the cheese is also made from the family cows. The “stink” from the washing is mild as is the cheese which is rich and creamy. Liz Thorpe would categorize this cheese as a gateway cheese for the washed rind family.
At Park Farm, Bath Soft Cheese Company makes their cheese from the milk of their 160 Holstein Friesian cows. The cheese is handmade using organic and sustainability methods, paying extra attention to the welfare of their small herd which grazes outdoors.
Next up was Gorwydd Organic Caerphilly made by the Trethowan Brothers in the Somerset region of England, west of London. When I was a young cheesemonger, our cheese shop carried an “industrial” Caerphilly that tasted like chalk. I posted about the cheese and quickly heard from readers that I had not had a “true” Caerphilly. My first trip to Murray’s, I asked to sample their Caerphilly, which was Gorwydd and was stunned – compared with the one I had tasted… well there was no comparison. This Caerphilly is milky and velvety with mild mushroomy notes; no chalky taste here. Made with unpasteurized cows milk and animal rennet.
In 1996 Todd Trethowan was working at Neal’s Yard Dairy to put himself through college. His plan was to return to the family farm and make traditional Caerphilly, which was almost extinct. The only cheesemaker in the UK making traditional Caerphilly was Chris Duckett and Todd landed an internship with Chris to learn how to make Caerphilly. After the internship, he retuned to the family farm in West Wales and with his brother, Maugan, began making traditional Caerphilly.
The final cheese on the board was a Welsh blue cheese named Perl Las (Blue Pearl in Welsh) made by Caws Cenarth Cheese. A delightful surprise was the golden paste inside the bloomy rind. Laced with blue veins, this cheese was near its “Best By” date and the texture of the paste was fudgy with robust blue flavor. A little salty with a lingering earthy finish, this is a special blue cheese.
The family has been making cheese since 1903 for themselves and to sell at the local farmer’s market. Caws Cenarth was born in 1987 and currently is run by three generations of the Adams family in South West Wales. They offer a monthly cheese club at their website.
As you may have noticed, all of these cheeses are made on family farms; all are organic and every farm practices sustainability schemes.
A selection of English cheeses is available at my Amazon Influencer storefront.
Only 7 days left to enter my Rogue Creamery Cheese and Swag giveaway. You can enter everyday to increase your odds to win this terrific selection of Rogue Creamery Cheeses and Rogue River Blue swag.
In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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The Man, aka Peter M. Wright, has written his first novel: Gold Fever, available at amazon.com as a kindle book for only $2.99.
Written in the flavor of one of our favorite movies, Romancing the Stone, Gold Fever is a romantic adventure that 
brings together an archeologist looking to establish his name in his field and a rock star on the verge of burn-out.
In GOLD FEVER an Archeologist motivated by a newly discovered clue, searches for a fabled Native American Legend – the long ago lost Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. While the Archeologist seeks to prove the legend is actually true, he is constantly under attack by a second group seeking the treasure.
The Man is currently writing a sequel to Gold Fever. Gold Fever and his non-fiction books are available through Amazon’s lending library.
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