blue cheese
Blue cheese makers tend to be a breed apart: they specialise in blue cheese and only blue cheese. The moulds which cause blue-ing are part of the penicillin famliy, but unlike the soft white bries and camemberts, here the moulds grow inside the cheese. Originally they just found their own way in; nowadays they're deliberately introduced during the maturing process.
The Cheese Shed offers a set of very distinctive blues, from all four of the region's counties. The Westcountry's traditional blue is Dorset Blue Vinney: once upon a time every other farm in the county made it - today just Mike and Emily Davies keep this great cheese alive. By contrast, Phil Stansfield's Cornish Blue - a mild, softish cheese - is less than ten years old, but already well-respected.
Robin Congdon's Ticklemore Dairy produces three modern classics in Beenleigh (ewe), Harbourne (goat) and Devon Blue (cow) by Devon's River Dart. Finally, Ian Arnett of Exmoor Blue Cheese produces powerful blues with a real kick: Somerset Blue and Partridge Blue are just two of them.
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