Description
Though the farm has been in the family since 1917, the Jones family didn’t start making cheese until the 1990s, when a young Simon returned from agricultural college. Eager to turn his hand toward cheesemaking, he enlisted the help of renowned Welsh cheesemaker Dougal Campbell to develop a recipe, and the result – which incorporates the hallmarks of a hard mountain cheese into a traditional West Country Cheddar – proved so popular that customers at the local cheese shop initially had to be rationed to quarter of a pound each. Simon’s brother Tim has since joined him on the farm, and in 1995 Simon employed their first full-time cheesemaker, Richard Tagg. Today, it is Jon Collins whose job it is to transform milk from their 230-strong herd of mostly Holstein Friesians into cheese on an almost daily basis. Once the curds have been moulded, salted and pressed for 36 hours, the resulting cheese truckles are matured on wooden boards and turned regularly to ensure even maturation. The brothers recently invested in a robot for turning the cheeses, improving consistency still further. Though some Lincolnshire Poacher will be aged for up to 36 months, we believe the finest tasting wheels are between a year and 24 months old.
