Oxfordshire cheese is experiencing a bit of a revival. Once famous for its Banbury cheese, cheese-making had pretty much disappeared.
Rachel Yarrow and Frazer Norton have farming heritage, his grandparents had a farm in Nottinghamshire, and her parents farmed in South Wales but cheese making and goat dairying are new.
Inspired by a magazine article in 2014. They spent the next year and a half researching goat breeds and cheese making. They decided to build a herd of purebred Anglo Nubian goats – known for their rich and creamy milk.
In May 2015 on the back of an initiative called Farm Step (run by nearby environmental charity Earth Trust, who offer tenancies on their land and barn space to agricultural business start-ups) they made the leap. The cheeses are made at Nettlebed Creamery although they are in the process of building their own creamery nearer to the milking parlour.
Norton & Yarrow goats originally grazed at the Earth Trust’s North Farm at Little Wittenham but now are grazed at Steventon.
Sinodun Hill is a ripened goats’ cheese pyramid. It is made using slow lactic coagulation of raw milk and is matured for up to 21 days. The cheeses start off with a plain white surface; geotricum yeast makes the rind take on a cream colour and gives it a lovely wrinkly appearance. The rind naturally develops some blue and grey moulds as it ages, which add to the character of the cheese. The cheese shrinks as it ages. Sinodun Hill is the alternative name for the Wittenham Clumps, standing just above the Earth Trust farm.
See my Artisan Cheeses from Oxfordshire for more details
