A full fat goat's cheese, Gevrik has a clean, fresh, nutty taste.  It develops a creamy, melting texture as it matures. Made in Trevarrion on the North Cornish coast, this cheese is a really tiny 70g, so consider buying several! It's available singly or in a box of seven.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Made by the Lubborn Creamery in Somerset, Capricorn has a delicate, velvety, soft white coat.  When young it is mild, crumbly and has a nutty flavour. As it ripens, the white curd becomes softer and creamier, and develops a fuller flavour.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

This is a moist, fluffy-textured goats' milk cheese with an ash coating made by Charlie Westhead at Neals' Yard Creamery.  The cheese-making business - which separated from the London shop of similar name in 1986 – is based at Dorstone in Herefordshire.  No, it's not from the Westcountry, but we couldn't resist stocking this one!  It's an unusual shape – a small blunt-topped cone – and stands about 3"high.

Unpasteurised 

Treveador Farm Dairy's cheeses use milk from a herd of Holstein Friesians established by the maker Alastair Rogers' father in the 1950s. Blue Horizon is a full fat, soft, creamy textured blue cheese, with a colourful (and completely edible) rind.  From the Cheese Shed's point of view, we're delighted to welcome this soft blue cheese to our shelves. You may also be interested in their Helford White.

Approx. 250g, pasteurised, vegetarian.

Treveador Dairy's cheeses are made by Alastair Rogers and Bernadette Newman on a farm which runs down to the banks of the beautiful Helford River, on The Lizard in Cornwall.

Helford White is a soft, somewhat squelchy 'washed rind' cheese.  Rind washing is the technique which creates the colour, tangy flavour and aromatic whiff.

Helford White is an especially attractive thing with its apricot/pink rind.  The Cheese Shed hasn't been overflowing with soft cheeses of this type, so we're delighted to see it here; and if you like the sound of this, take a look at their other cheese, the superb soft blue, Blue Horizon.

Approx. 250g, pasteurised, vegetarian.

This version of Graham and Jo Townsend's Vulscombe goats' cheese has added black peppercorns.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Vulscombe soft goats' cheese flavoured with herbs and garlic.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Graham and Jo Townsend's Vulscombe goats' cheese is subtle, beautifully presented and comes in several varieties.  There's plain, one with black peppercorns, one with herbs and garlic, and one with herbs and sun-dried tomatoes.  Graham's keen to point out that the herbs - which vary with the seasons - are freshly picked from their own garden.

All of the above come as a 170g round. There's also a 250g log-shaped version which chefs find especially useful.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Eve is a cute little beauty of a cheese.  Made by Pete Humphries of Somerset's Whitelake Cheese, this small and meltingly soft goats’ cheese is washed in Somerset Cider Brandy and then wrapped in vine leaves.  Unpasteurised and non-vegetarian, maker Pete Humphries drew on the character of the French Epoisses in devising the cheese.

For another soft, 'washed rind' cheese, try Stinking Bishop (if you're brave enough).

This was the first smoked goats' cheese we listed ... and actually we stopped there!  But you will love the texture, colour, and above all the taste of this oak-smoked version of Annette Lee's excellent Woolsery cheese. One of the select band of cheeses chosen for my stepdaughter's wedding in 2009 ...

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Annette Lee moved her dairy from Devon to Dorset, where Woolsery Cheese is now based in the tiny hamlet of Up Sydling*.  Although she also makes soft cheeses, cows' cheeses and a version of 'feta', her best-known cheese is this four-month matured delight made from pasterised goat's milk.  She describes it as having "a firm smooth texture with a rich full flavour, without that strong goaty taste".

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

* only in Dorset ...
 

Firm goats' cheese washed with cider brandy, made by Pete Humphries of Somerset's Whitelake Dairy.

250g, unpasteurised.

Godminster's stroke of genius has been to make a heart shaped version of their fabulous Organic Vintage Cheddar.  This comes in two sizes - seen above - 400g or 200g.

We also have the regular - round - version of Godminster, which you can see here.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised / Organic.  400g or 200g

Small brie-style cheese made in North Cornwall

Cornwall's version of camembert - made at Trevarrion on the north coast.

A powerful modern-style cheddar made in north Wales by the Snowdonia Cheese Company.

Treveador Farm Dairy's cheeses use milk from a herd of Holstein Friesians established by the maker Alastair Rogers' father in the 1950s. Blue Horizon is a full fat, soft, creamy textured blue cheese, with a colourful (and completely edible) rind.  From the Cheese Shed's point of view, we're delighted to welcome this soft blue cheese to our shelves. You may also be interested in their Helford White.

Approx. 250g, pasteurised, vegetarian.

Treveador Dairy's cheeses are made by Alastair Rogers and Bernadette Newman on a farm which runs down to the banks of the beautiful Helford River, on The Lizard in Cornwall.

Helford White is a soft, somewhat squelchy 'washed rind' cheese.  Rind washing is the technique which creates the colour, tangy flavour and aromatic whiff.

Helford White is an especially attractive thing with its apricot/pink rind.  The Cheese Shed hasn't been overflowing with soft cheeses of this type, so we're delighted to see it here; and if you like the sound of this, take a look at their other cheese, the superb soft blue, Blue Horizon.

Approx. 250g, pasteurised, vegetarian.

Also sold at Fortnum and Masons and top cheese retailers Paxton and Whitfield, so if you assumed that this cheese from Sue Proudfoot of Whalesborough Farm in Bude, Cornwall, has real character and quality, you'd be right!  It's pungent, earthy and soft, its rind washed with local cider. 

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Describing cheeses is dificult! In my struggle to do that, I may be guilty of over-using the term 'distinctive ... but when it comes to Sue Proudfoot's cheeses, that adjective definitely fits the bill!  Sue's Keltic Gold has gained her a lot of attention, as a classy 'washed rind' cheese (local cider is used).

Miss Muffet and Keltic Gold are close relations, but use different starter cultures and MM doesn't have the washed rind.  The result is a sweet flavoured cheese with a supple texture, definitely 'semi-soft' and somehow not what you think of as English cheese!  Michael Raffael talks about "a springiness and cleanness on the palate, like the best Dutch Edams and Goudas".

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Around the time the Cheese Shed started, Daisy and Co (Richard and Caroline Harbord) came up with a quartet of mould-ripened cheeses on their farm near Bruton in Somerset. All variations on a theme, they used the organic, pasteurised milk from the Harbord's own herd of Jersey cows.  Black-Eyed Susan was the version studded with black peppercorns.

In 2010 the Harbords retired, but happily near-neighbours Godminster were able to take over, working with the same cheesemaker, so the Harbords cheeses survived and we can still enjoy them.

Organic, pasteurised, vegetarian.

The Bartlett brothers' run their own sheep farm at North Wootton near Shepton Mallet in Somerset. Little Ryding is made with their own organic milk.

But ewes' milk isn't available all year. so they also make this 250g mould-ripened cheese with organic Jersey cows' milk.  Firmer when young, it develops a squishy (their word, not mine!) texture after about 3½ weeks.

Organic / Unpasterised / Vegetarian.

Around the time the Cheese Shed started, Daisy and Co (Richard and Caroline Harbord) came up with a quartet of mould-ripened cheeses on their farm near Bruton in Somerset,  using the organic milk from their own herd of Jersey cows. The basic 'plain' version was called Goldilocks.

In 2010 the Harbords retired, but happily near-neighbours Godminster were able to take over, working with the same cheesemaker, so the Harbords cheeses survived and we can still enjoy them.  The cheese is now called Godminster Organic Brie.

Organic, pasteurised, vegetarian.

Rich and creamy with a soft edible white rind.  As the cheese matures the curd softens, turning to a butter or straw colour and developing a fuller flavour.  From the same maker, see Somerset Brie.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

From Rachel Stephens of Stockbeare Farm in North Devon, this is a full fat hard cheese based on a traditional 17th Century recipe.  Available in a black wax.  Devon Oke is the same cheese, but matured for longer; Belstone is the vegetarian version.

Curworthy with a little something extra is represented by Chipple, which has chopped spring onions added, and Meldon, which has mustard and ale ...

Pasteurised

We've gradually added more of the cheeses made by Rachel Stephens of Stockbeare in North Devon.  Rachel is best known for Curworthy and Devon Oke, but makes a number of other cheeses.  Meldon, which features the addition of English mustard and Ale, comes yellow-waxed.

Pasteurised
 

Pete Humphries worked for Bath Soft Cheese before setting up White Lake Cheeses, based near Glastonbury Tor in Somerset.  Pete's range of handmade cheeses uses milk from a 600-strong herd of goats.  White Nancy - a sweet and creamy cheese with a white, bloomy rind - was the first one we stocked in the Cheese Shed.  As the photo shows, these beautiful small truckles (about 4" across and 3" high) have a fabulous texture.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian.  About 600g.

An old Dorset recipe which had almost died out until Michael Davies revived  it!  This delightful, slightly crumbly blue cheese has a pleasantly soft taste.  Made from semi-skimmed milk, it's also low in fat.

As well as cut wedges, we can also offer a baby Blue Vinny  (perhaps this should be a mini Vinny?). Emily Davies wraps and wax-seals miniature 500g truckles: a lovely present for someone.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian

Designed to be eaten as a young cheese, Cornish Blue is a very different product from traditional English blue cheeses such as Stilton or Dorset Blue Vinney. Moist, sticky, Gorgonzola-ish and generally rather wonderful, Cornish Blue is made by Philip and Carol Stansfield with milk from their own farm which sits on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

Voted Best Blue Cheese and Best English Cheese at the 2006 British Cheese Awards; it was also judged Supreme Champion at the 2010 World Cheese Awards.

Pasteurised

Godminster's stroke of genius has been to make a heart shaped version of their fabulous Organic Vintage Cheddar.  This comes in two sizes - seen above - 400g or 200g.

We also have the regular - round - version of Godminster, which you can see here.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised / Organic.  400g or 200g

A fabulous cheese! In its distinctive purple wax, Godminster Organic Cheddar is a powerful cheese with a real edge to it - wow!  Made near Bruton in Somerset, it also comes in a heart-shaped version.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised / Organic

A creamy, soft white cheese made with unpasteurised cows' milk. Made by Chalke Valley Cheese in rural Dorset.

This exciting naturally-rinded cheese comes from Sue Proudfoot, based near Bude. Weighing in at 300g, Little Wheal is matured for 4-6 weeks, resulting in a characterful cheese with a creamy texture and zingy flavour.

Fourme d'Ambert: This mild blue cheese from the Auvergne has a really ancient provenance. Known as a real connoisseur's cheese, it has a creamy interior with greenish-blue marbling.


 

A beautiful washed rind cheese from James McCall.  Francis starts life as 'Stoney Cross', made by Salisbury-based Lyburn Cheese. James then carries it off to Dorset, matures it and washes the rind, which gradually produces quite a different beast. The result is supple, richly-flavoured and generally gorgeous. You might also want to know that this is a very pungent cheese with a sticky rind.

Pasteurised, vegetarian

Designed to be eaten as a young cheese, Cornish Blue is a very different product from traditional English blue cheeses such as Stilton or Dorset Blue Vinney. Moist, sticky, Gorgonzola-ish and generally rather wonderful, Cornish Blue is made by Philip and Carol Stansfield with milk from their own farm which sits on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

Voted Best Blue Cheese and Best English Cheese at the 2006 British Cheese Awards; it was also judged Supreme Champion at the 2010 World Cheese Awards.

Pasteurised

Yarg is Yunique!

A moist cheese from Cornwall with a fresh, creamy taste and a quality all of its own - derived from the hand-applied covering of nettles.  A great-looking, great-tasting and - let's say it again - unique cheese.  Full wheels of Yarg weigh in at 3kg, but the Baby Yarg is also available - a small truckle of around 900g.  Complete wheels of Yarg look fantastic - we often seem to use them for our cheese wedding cakes to great effect, as one of the lower layers.

If you know Yarg in this version - the most common - why not have a look at Wild Garlic Yarg, where the nettles are replaced by wild garlic leaves?  

Vegetarian / Pasteurised
 

Colston Bassett is made in the heart of 'Stilton country' (stretching across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire): an area famous for cheese for two and a half centuries. The dairy was founded in 1920, and makes one of the most famous Stiltons available today, described as "creamy but not too moist, the blue deep and powerful ... the cheese itself distinctive, with a strong herbal almost spicy flavour."

Denhay Farm is near Bridport in Dorset, and they've been making cheddar there since 1959.  George Streatfield says:  "We have five herds of Friesian cows and only their milk is used for Denhay Cheddar making.  Bill, our head cheese maker, who has been at Denhay for over 30 years, leads a team of seven who are committed to producing a really good consistent cheese.  This commitment to quality and consistency has resulted in Denhay Cheddar winning top cheese awards for many years."

Back in the days before I became Bovey Tracey's leading shed-based virtual cheesemonger, I used to eat Denhay Cheddar all the time.  My horizons have widened somewhat now, but I'd still be happy to recommend it!

Pictured is their Dorset Drum', a beautifully packaged 2kg mini-truckle.  You might think 2kg isn't very 'mini', but in the cheddar world, where a typical truckle is around 25kg, it's most definitely on the small side!

Pasteurised

Denhay Cheddar is used as part of our Dorset Selection.

Park Farm is in Kelston, just outside Bath.  Graham Padfield is a third-generation farmer, but the first in his family to make cheese: he started, back in 1993, with Bath Soft Cheese, and this is now the name of the company.

Kelston Park is a larger cheese than Bath Soft, and its longer ripening process gives it subtly different, more intense, flavours.  About 6" across, it weighs in at around 650g.

For another organic brie, see Goldilocks and it's various flavoured brothers and sisters.

Organic / Vegetarian / Pasteurised

There aren't too many handmade cheeses with added cream in the UK, but this may be one of the best.  Similar to a Vignotte, it has a surprisingly light texture and delicate flavour if eaten young (2-3 weeks). Alternatively, if matured for 4-6 weeks it becomes more rich and full bodied. Like Rustic, this is made on the Sharpham estate in South Devon. It comes as a beautiful small cheese of about 800g, and is beautifully packaged with the Sharpham label (see photo).

Unpasteurised / vegetarian

From Rachel Stephens of Stockbeare Farm in North Devon, this is a full fat hard cheese based on a traditional 17th Century recipe.  Available in a black wax.  Devon Oke is the same cheese, but matured for longer; Belstone is the vegetarian version.

Curworthy with a little something extra is represented by Chipple, which has chopped spring onions added, and Meldon, which has mustard and ale ...

Pasteurised

Annette Lee moved her dairy from Devon to Dorset, where Woolsery Cheese is now based in the tiny hamlet of Up Sydling*.  Although she also makes soft cheeses, cows' cheeses and a version of 'feta', her best-known cheese is this four-month matured delight made from pasterised goat's milk.  She describes it as having "a firm smooth texture with a rich full flavour, without that strong goaty taste".

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

* only in Dorset ...
 

We've gradually added more of the cheeses made by Rachel Stephens of Stockbeare in North Devon.  Rachel is best known for Curworthy and Devon Oke, but makes a number of other cheeses.  Meldon, which features the addition of English mustard and Ale, comes yellow-waxed.

Pasteurised
 

From Stockbeare Farm in North Devon, this cheese is related to Curworthy and Devon Oke. Essentially it's the vegetarian member of the family (with Devon Oke the more mature one), but all three are full fat, hard cows milk cheeses based on a traditional C17 recipe.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

This was the first smoked goats' cheese we listed ... and actually we stopped there!  But you will love the texture, colour, and above all the taste of this oak-smoked version of Annette Lee's excellent Woolsery cheese. One of the select band of cheeses chosen for my stepdaughter's wedding in 2009 ...

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Sue Proudfoot's first cheese was Trelawney - a traditional cheddar-style cheese, matured for a relatively short six weeks. Now she's created a red-orange veined version called Cornish Smugglers.  

Annatto - the same vegetable dye used in Red Leicester and Double Gloucester - is added as the curds are placed in moulds.  The result is a unique and super-attractive cheese which will look great on the cheeseboard.

Other cheeses using annatto are Westcombe Red and Smart's Double Gloucester.

Vegetarian, pasteurised.

This was Sue Proudfoot's first cheese.  It's a traditional style farmhouse cheese - a cheddar, essentially - with a clear flavour and nicely balanced acidity, matured for 6 weeks.  For a contrast, take a look at Miss Muffet, Keltic Gold or her big award winner from 2008, Cornish Crumbly.  There's also an exciting red-veined version of these cheese - called Cornish Smugglers.

Vegetarian, pasteurised.

Describing cheeses is dificult! In my struggle to do that, I may be guilty of over-using the term 'distinctive ... but when it comes to Sue Proudfoot's cheeses, that adjective definitely fits the bill!  Sue's Keltic Gold has gained her a lot of attention, as a classy 'washed rind' cheese (local cider is used).

Miss Muffet and Keltic Gold are close relations, but use different starter cultures and MM doesn't have the washed rind.  The result is a sweet flavoured cheese with a supple texture, definitely 'semi-soft' and somehow not what you think of as English cheese!  Michael Raffael talks about "a springiness and cleanness on the palate, like the best Dutch Edams and Goudas".

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Also sold at Fortnum and Masons and top cheese retailers Paxton and Whitfield, so if you assumed that this cheese from Sue Proudfoot of Whalesborough Farm in Bude, Cornwall, has real character and quality, you'd be right!  It's pungent, earthy and soft, its rind washed with local cider. 

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

A fabulous cheese! In its distinctive purple wax, Godminster Organic Cheddar is a powerful cheese with a real edge to it - wow!  Made near Bruton in Somerset, it also comes in a heart-shaped version.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised / Organic

This wheel of Cornish Blue is cut down from a 2kg truckle, giving a 1kg wheel half the height of the original cheese. Pasteurised.

'Rich', 'mellow', 'powerful', 'earthy, almost smoky' are all terms that have been used to describe this cheese and you won't find anyone here to disagree.  Cheese fact:  the orangey colour of Double Gloucester is produced by the vegetable dye annatto.  Cheeses like Westcombe Red and Shropshire Blue get their colour the same way.

In Nov 2007 Diana was shortlisted (one of four) for the Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards - the 'Best Producer' Award.  A great accolade!  And she also makes the less common Single Gloucester (see above right) - we sell that too, of course.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian

Designed to be eaten as a young cheese, Cornish Blue is a very different product from traditional English blue cheeses such as Stilton or Dorset Blue Vinney. Moist, sticky, Gorgonzola-ish and generally rather wonderful, Cornish Blue is made by Philip and Carol Stansfield with milk from their own farm which sits on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

Voted Best Blue Cheese and Best English Cheese at the 2006 British Cheese Awards; it was also judged Supreme Champion at the 2010 World Cheese Awards.

Pasteurised

Sue Proudfoot's most recent creation achieved the great accolade of being voted Best Modern British Cheese at the 2008 British Cheese Awards, and that takes some doing.

It's a lightly pressed cheese, lively - think of a creamy Lancashire with bite - and with a chalky texture.  See also Miss Muffet, Keltic Gold and Trelawney.

Vegetarian, pasteurised.

The Quicke family from Devon has been making cheese on the same farm just north of Exeter for over 450 years!  All their cheddar is matured slowly, wrapped in muslin cloth, to develop a real depth and complexity of flavour.  For the smoked cheddar they start with a well-flavoured cheddar matured for 12-15 months.  The truckles are cut into 1.5kg pieces - to ensure that the flavour infuses right through the cheese – and then smoked over oak shavings for 3-4 hrs.

Pasteurised 

This version of this famous cheddar is matured for 12 months.  It's made by Mary Quicke and her team at Newton St Cyres, north of Exeter.

Pasteurised.

Quicke's Red Leicester: Most famous for their cheddar, the Quickes Of Newton St Cyres in Devon also make a few 'territorials' like a Double Gloucester, and this.

As the name suggests, this was originally a Welsh cheese, but there's quite a history of Caerphilly making on the south side of the Bristol Channel.  Favoured by miners in days gone by, it can also be enjoyed above ground! A young cheese with a creamy texture and pinkish rind, it melts beautifully: ideal for your Welsh Rarebit.

This cheese also forms the basis for Tornegus.  Pat Robinson uses Duckett's Carephilly to produce this beautiful rind-washed cheese, originally developed by her partner, the late James Aldridge.  Tornegus is great! Strong smelling (but not over-the-top), springy and with a rich fruity taste and a fantastic orange rind.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

For wedding cakes we use two different Wensleydales. The smaller one (18cm across) is from Hawes. The larger one (25cm) is by Belton.

This cheese, invented by James Aldridge, is based on Chris Duckett's Caerphilly.

Tornegus is a washed-rind cheese - during maturation the rind is washed with brine including some special bacteria: this affects colour, texture, tase and aroma. The pinkish rind also has a scattering of Egyptian Mint, to give the cheese a sweeter finish; texture is  silky - semi-soft - and the flavour spicy, becoming fruitier and more powerful as it matures.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

A moist cheese with a fresh, clean taste. Here the covering is not nettles - as per 'normal' Cornish Yarg - but naturally grown wild garlic leaves. Think Caerphilly in a dark green overcoat. 

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Somerset's Chris Duckett was one of the pioneer artisan cheese makers.  A real specialist, he concentrated on a superb Caerphilly.  But there are several versions of this!  Wedmore has a line of chives running through the middle, and this is Smoked Wedmore - which is therefore a sort of double variation on the basic cheese.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

As the name suggests, this was originally a Welsh cheese, but there's quite a history of Caerphilly making on the south side of the Bristol Channel.  Favoured by miners in days gone by, it can also be enjoyed above ground! A young cheese with a creamy texture and pinkish rind, it melts beautifully: ideal for your Welsh Rarebit.

This cheese also forms the basis for Tornegus.  Pat Robinson uses Duckett's Carephilly to produce this beautiful rind-washed cheese, originally developed by her partner, the late James Aldridge.  Tornegus is great! Strong smelling (but not over-the-top), springy and with a rich fruity taste and a fantastic orange rind.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

For wedding cakes we use two different Wensleydales. The smaller one (18cm across) is from Hawes. The larger one (25cm) is by Belton.

The Sharpham dairy is based on the Sharpham estate on the banks of the River Dart just south of Totnes in Devon.  

This is one of the cheese family known as 'mould-ripened', and it's best thought of as Sharpham's take on brie: they were one of the first UK makers to make this style of cheese, and this creamy marvel must still rank as one of the best.

The cheese comes in two sizes: as a 300kg block (pictured) or a 1.2kg wheel. 

Vegetarian / Unpasteurised

An excellent blue cows' cheese with a moist, slightly crumbly texture.  Made by Robin Congdon, of Ticklemore Cheese, on his farm by the banks of the River Dart.  He's a real blue cheese specialist!  Check out his related Harbourne Blue (goat) and Beenleigh Blue (sheep). 

Robin and his wife Sarie used to run the Ticklemore Cheese Shop in Totnes. They've since decided to concentrate on making, but the shop continues as 'Country Cheeses'.

Pasteurised / vegetarian

A ewes' milk cheese made in the cheddar style by Phil Rainbow, and a very striking one thing it is too. Fleece is a pearly white, with a wonderfully silky smooth texture and clean taste. We often recommend this to people who are unfamilar with ewes' milk cheeses and it rarely fails to win them over.

Pasteurised / Vegetarian

Fosseway?  The famous Roman Road of Fosse Way runs close to the village of Ditcheat, where the Somerset Cheese Company is based.

Phil Rainbow at the Somerset Cheese Company has specialised in non-cows' milk cheeses since the company was founded in 2005.  But cheeses such as Fosseway Fleece (ewe) and Pennard Vale (goat) were very much in the cheddar style, so logically he was bound to make a real cheddar sooner or later.

And here it is, named after the six churches visible from the dairy. Six Spires is a beautifully full-flavoured cheddar made with raw - unpasteurised - milk.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian

This is a goats' milk version of Caerphilly, from the same dairy that makes Fosseway Fleece. Pale cream in colour, it has a slightly open, chalky texture without being dry.  A light, refreshing cheese!

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Powerful blue goats cheese with a creamy, melting texture.  Made by Robin Congdon on his farm overlooking the River Dart, this is one of the superb family of Ticklemore cheeses that includes the Devon and Beenleigh Blues.  Robin  - who runs the excellent Ticklemore Cheese Shop in Totnes -  used also to make Ticklemore goats cheese, but this has now been handed over to the neighbouring Sharpham dairy.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

sorry - there is no Beenleigh Blue available now: we're hoping to have it again in early May

Slightly crumbly, with tiny, bubbly holes.  This is a rich, sweet blue ewes milk cheese that people just rave about! 

It's made by Robin Congdon of Ticklemore Cheese in South Devon, and if you like blue cheese (of course you do!), you might like to check out Harbourne Blue (goat) and Devon Blue (cow) from the same dairy.  

Pasteurised / vegetarian

Classic French Camembert.

A luxury version of Cornish Brie made with double cream.  Wonderful character and complexity of flavour. For another added-cream cheese along these lines, see Sharpham's Elmhirst.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Cornish Brie has a delicious mild and creamy flavour and melting, smooth texture.  The rich and creamy Cornish milk gives it a characteristic yellow, buttery colour.  Makers Cornish Country Larder also do an added-cream version of this called St Endellion, plus a rather good hard goats' cheese, Village Green.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

An old Dorset recipe which had almost died out until Michael Davies revived  it!  This delightful, slightly crumbly blue cheese has a pleasantly soft taste.  Made from semi-skimmed milk, it's also low in fat.

As well as cut wedges, we can also offer a baby Blue Vinny  (perhaps this should be a mini Vinny?). Emily Davies wraps and wax-seals miniature 500g truckles: a lovely present for someone.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian

From Stockbeare Farm in North Devon, this is a full fat hard cheese based on a traditional 17th Century recipe. It's matured for 5 months, giving it an entirely different quality from the younger Curworthy.  Belstone is the vegetarian version.

Pasteurised

NB Devon Oke is regularly used as part of our Devon Selection.

This is Curworthy's Devon Oke, only smoked.  Devon Smoake, geddit? So: what we have here is a sweet, supple-textured cheese matured for six months, then smoked over oak chips.  All Rachel Stephens' cheeses use a washed curd technique which lowers acidity - so if you're looking for a sweeter alternative to a smoked cheddar, this might be the thing.

Note that Devon Smoake as a whole cheese is a half-moon shape.

Pasteurised.

Colston Bassett is made in the heart of 'Stilton country' (stretching across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire): an area famous for cheese for two and a half centuries. The dairy was founded in 1920, and makes one of the most famous Stiltons available today, described as "creamy but not too moist, the blue deep and powerful ... the cheese itself distinctive, with a strong herbal almost spicy flavour."

An old Dorset recipe which had almost died out until Michael Davies revived  it!  This delightful, slightly crumbly blue cheese has a pleasantly soft taste.  Made from semi-skimmed milk, it's also low in fat.

As well as cut wedges, we can also offer a baby Blue Vinny  (perhaps this should be a mini Vinny?). Emily Davies wraps and wax-seals miniature 500g truckles: a lovely present for someone.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian

Bath Blue is a creamy, smooth blue cheese with evenly-spaced blue veins and a characteristic clean aroma - it's the only organic blue to be listed by The Cheese Shed.

Organic / Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Colston Bassett is made in the heart of 'Stilton country' (stretching across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire): an area famous for cheese for two and a half centuries. The dairy was founded in 1920, and makes one of the most famous Stiltons available today, described as "creamy but not too moist, the blue deep and powerful ... the cheese itself distinctive, with a strong herbal almost spicy flavour."

From Stockbeare Farm in North Devon, this is a full fat hard cheese based on a traditional 17th Century recipe. It's matured for 5 months, giving it an entirely different quality from the younger Curworthy.  Belstone is the vegetarian version.

Pasteurised

NB Devon Oke is regularly used as part of our Devon Selection.

Creamy, with a mild, fresh flavour.  Made in Cricket St Thomas, Somerset - for another cheese by the same maker, see Somerset Camembert. 

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

A powerful modern-style cheddar made in north Wales by the Snowdonia Cheese Company.

This classic English cheese has been made by Singleton’s Dairy in Preston for 4 generations now.

A powerful modern-style cheddar made in north Wales by the Snowdonia Cheese Company.

A blue brie made in Germany.

Designed to be eaten as a young cheese, Cornish Blue is a very different product from traditional English blue cheeses such as Stilton or Dorset Blue Vinney. Moist, sticky, Gorgonzola-ish and generally rather wonderful, Cornish Blue is made by Philip and Carol Stansfield with milk from their own farm which sits on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

Voted Best Blue Cheese and Best English Cheese at the 2006 British Cheese Awards; it was also judged Supreme Champion at the 2010 World Cheese Awards.

Pasteurised

For wedding cakes we use two different Wensleydales. The smaller one (18cm across) is from Hawes. The larger one (25cm) is by Belton.

Designed to be eaten as a young cheese, Cornish Blue is a very different product from traditional English blue cheeses such as Stilton or Dorset Blue Vinney. Moist, sticky, Gorgonzola-ish and generally rather wonderful, Cornish Blue is made by Philip and Carol Stansfield with milk from their own farm which sits on the edge of Bodmin Moor.

Voted Best Blue Cheese and Best English Cheese at the 2006 British Cheese Awards; it was also judged Supreme Champion at the 2010 World Cheese Awards.

Pasteurised

The Quicke family of Devon has been in dairy on the same farm just north of Exeter for over 450 years! All their cheddar is matured slowly on wooden shelves (this one for at least 18 months), wrapped in muslin cloth, giving a real depth and complexity of flavour.  The old fashioned rind that develops using this method is the hallmark of a well-matured traditional cheddar

We offer this cheese as cut wedges of various sizes.  There's also a 1.8kg truckle, though note this is usually Mature (12 months) rather than Extra Mature (18).

Pasteurised.

A cheddar-style hard goats cheese, Pennard Vale is made by Philip Rainbow at Somerset Cheese Company.  Philip specialises in all the 'other' milks (i.e not cow).  Pennard Vale has a close, smooth, creamy texture with a nutty taste.  

You might also like to take a look at another lovely cheese made by Philip: Fosseway Fleece, a real favourite of ours.

Pasteurised, vegetarian.

A ewes' milk cheese made in the cheddar style by Phil Rainbow, and a very striking one thing it is too. Fleece is a pearly white, with a wonderfully silky smooth texture and clean taste. We often recommend this to people who are unfamilar with ewes' milk cheeses and it rarely fails to win them over.

Pasteurised / Vegetarian

Fosseway?  The famous Roman Road of Fosse Way runs close to the village of Ditcheat, where the Somerset Cheese Company is based.

The Quicke family from Devon has been making cheese on the same farm just north of Exeter for over 450 years!  All their cheddar is matured slowly, wrapped in muslin cloth, to develop a real depth and complexity of flavour.  For the smoked cheddar they start with a well-flavoured cheddar matured for 12-15 months.  The truckles are cut into 1.5kg pieces - to ensure that the flavour infuses right through the cheese – and then smoked over oak shavings for 3-4 hrs.

Pasteurised 

Yarg is Yunique!

A moist cheese from Cornwall with a fresh, creamy taste and a quality all of its own - derived from the hand-applied covering of nettles.  A great-looking, great-tasting and - let's say it again - unique cheese.  Full wheels of Yarg weigh in at 3kg, but the Baby Yarg is also available - a small truckle of around 900g.  Complete wheels of Yarg look fantastic - we often seem to use them for our cheese wedding cakes to great effect, as one of the lower layers.

If you know Yarg in this version - the most common - why not have a look at Wild Garlic Yarg, where the nettles are replaced by wild garlic leaves?  

Vegetarian / Pasteurised
 

'Rich', 'mellow', 'powerful', 'earthy, almost smoky' are all terms that have been used to describe this cheese and you won't find anyone here to disagree.  Cheese fact:  the orangey colour of Double Gloucester is produced by the vegetable dye annatto.  Cheeses like Westcombe Red and Shropshire Blue get their colour the same way.

In Nov 2007 Diana was shortlisted (one of four) for the Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards - the 'Best Producer' Award.  A great accolade!  And she also makes the less common Single Gloucester (see above right) - we sell that too, of course.

Unpasteurised / Vegetarian

As the name suggests, this was originally a Welsh cheese, but there's quite a history of Caerphilly making on the south side of the Bristol Channel.  Favoured by miners in days gone by, it can also be enjoyed above ground! A young cheese with a creamy texture and pinkish rind, it melts beautifully: ideal for your Welsh Rarebit.

This cheese also forms the basis for Tornegus.  Pat Robinson uses Duckett's Carephilly to produce this beautiful rind-washed cheese, originally developed by her partner, the late James Aldridge.  Tornegus is great! Strong smelling (but not over-the-top), springy and with a rich fruity taste and a fantastic orange rind.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Not quite the only unpasteurized Red Leicester ... there is now one called Sparkenhoe being made in Leicestershire itself.  But Westcombe Red was the one that brought real farmhouse Red Leicester back from extinction, and utterly wonderful stuff it is too.  If you only know this cheese from a factory produced version, try this one.

Made at Westcombe Dairy, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, home also to a fabulous and really powerful cheddar.

Unpasteurised

Sometimes one cheese leads to another.  Here's the story:

Once Upon a Time Jamie Montgomery - maker of the famous cheddar - played host to two young Americans keen to learn about cheesemaking.  They experimented with some of his Jersey milk - not generally used for cheddar - using various techniques, and the result of one of their more successful ideas led to Jersey Shield.

Up at Neals Yard Dairy, the storeman Bill Oglethorpe began to experiment with the cheese, using the 'washed rind' technique which affects texture, taste, smell (more!), and the quality of the rind (softer, stickier).   You can guess the next bit: Oglethorpe's modified Jersey Shield became 'Ogle Shield'.

Unpasteurised

Cornish Brie has a delicious mild and creamy flavour and melting, smooth texture.  The rich and creamy Cornish milk gives it a characteristic yellow, buttery colour.  Makers Cornish Country Larder also do an added-cream version of this called St Endellion, plus a rather good hard goats' cheese, Village Green.

Vegetarian / Pasteurised

Westcombe Dairy produces one of the 'big three' Somerset cheddars, the others being Keen's and Montgomery's. Although cheese had been made at Westcombe Farm, near Shepton Mallett, since the 1890s, there had been a gap when cheesemaking re-started in the early 1990s.

Sarah Freeman says in The Real Cheese Companion that it "falls neatly between the softer, more flowery tones of Montgomery's and the altogether more robust character of Keen's."  Westcombe also make the marvellous Westcombe Red, the cheese which single-handedly resurrected the idea of unpasteurized Red Leicester.

Unpasteurised

Westcombe Dairy produces one of the 'big three' Somerset cheddars, the others being Keen's and Montgomery's. Although cheese had been made at Westcombe Farm, near Shepton Mallett, since the 1890s, there had been a gap when cheesemaking re-started in the early 1990s.

Sarah Freeman says in The Real Cheese Companion that it "falls neatly between the softer, more flowery tones of Montgomery's and the altogether more robust character of Keen's."  Westcombe also make the marvellous Westcombe Red, the cheese which single-handedly resurrected the idea of unpasteurized Red Leicester.

Unpasteurised

Ford Farm's cave-aged cheddar is made in their dairy in Dorset, but matured in the unique environment of Somerset's Wookey Hole cave. Maturing cheese in caves is nothing new in France - Roquefort has been matured in the caves of Combalou mountain for centuries - but Ford Farm's Mike Pullin was the first to do it here.

Mike is convinced that the cave environment has given his cheese a different dimension. The natural moulds grow faster in the high humidity and this has a mellowing effect. The precise contribution of Wookey Hole may be hard to pin down, but this is certainly a welcome addition to the Westcountry cheddar scene.

Pasteurised