The Coronavirus lockdown looked to be an utter catastrophe for our artisan cheesemakers. 70-90 per cent of their business disappeared overnight as restaurants, cafes, pubs, and farmers markets closed, leaving cheese maturing stores overfilled, and a flush of spring milk with nowhere to go. Cows, sheep, and goats can’t be furloughed.
But it’s beginning to look as if craft cheesemakers may yet snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. As a measure of their sheer determination, and the public’s widespread desire for something better than the nondescript, industrial slab cheeses stacked on supermarket shelves, they’ve rapidly mobilised to bump up retail sales.
Ironically, the acute trauma of the specialist cheese industry has created a novel state of affairs. If you’re a lover of unique and special handmade cheeses, it’s never been easier to buy them.
Up and down the land, lockdown shoppers are ordering boxes of cheese direct from the makers, or through dairies that retail a list of specialist cheeses, and being totally delighted with the contents. Cheese boxes have become an easy Coronavirus gift, a way of saying to family and friends: “I’m still thinking of you, even though I can’t hug you”. And this phenomenon could change our cheese buying habits forever. There’s a world of cheese pleasure beyond Cathedral City cheddar. Once entered, there’s no going back.
There’s been a flurry of promising activity around artisan cheese since the risk to this small industry was highlighted, notably, the British Cheese Weekender event next weekend (8-10 May). This initiative from the Specialist Cheesemakers Association, the Academy of Cheese, and the Guild of Fine Food, will be a virtual festival, celebrating the exciting diversity of cheeses made by our small producers, and highlighting the crisis they face. It will include free online tastings by top cheese experts, cheese masterclasses, virtual farm tours, and cheese pub quizzes. The idea is that you buy some cheese online, or from retailers, beforehand, and then enjoy the tastings in a virtual setting.
The Cheese Weekender promises to be fun, but its important underlying message is serious. Those of us who want Scotland and the wider UK to retain its once flourishing artisan cheeses must show our support for the people who put them on our tables. We need to buy from them now, whether that’s online direct from the producers and specialist retailers, or from local shops and farm shops that are still open. If you’re up for this, try to include some soft and blue cheeses in your order. Sales of these have particularly suffered because they have a shorter shelf life.
Restaurants look likely to be the last businesses to come out of lockdown, so it’s no exaggeration to say that for the time being, the livelihoods of our specialist cheesemakers are in the hands of ordinary people who appreciate good cheese. Let’s show them we love them.
Below are some great sources for artisan cheeses, delivered to your door:
Courtyard Dairy
Consummate cheesemongers who know the background to the cheeses they sell, and who keep and pack them beautifully. The top online site for a wide selection of cheeses sourced from more than one cheesemaker.
https://www.thecourtyarddairy.co.uk/shop/category/buy-cheese/
Specialist Cheesemakers Association
A UK-wide, updated list of cheesemakers who sell direct to the public.
http://www.specialistcheesemakers.co.uk
The Ethical Dairy
Rainton Tomme, Carrick, Laganory and Fleet Valley Blue, made from organic milk, produced by a farmer who has pioneered the highest standards of dairy cow welfare.
https://www.theethicaldairy.co.uk/cheese-shop
Isle of Mull cheddar
For the celebrated, eponymous raw milk cheddar and Hebridean Blue
https://www.sgriobruadh.co.uk/shop
St Andrews Cheese Company
Raw milk cheeses, Anster and St Andrews Farmhouse, made using the milk from their single source herd of home-bred cows.
Email: info@standrewscheese.co.uk
Errington Cheese
Try their new goats cheeses- Bonnington Linn, Tinto, Biggar Blue, and stunning goat’s milk curd- as well as enduring old favourites like Lanark Blue and Corra Linn.
www.erringtoncheese.com
Cambus O’May
Raw milk cheeses, including Lochnagar and Ardmore,
made in small batches and traditionally matured. Email orders info@cambusomay.com or available via the North East Food Hub
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel