Norbury Blue Cheese
Why is Norbury Blue cheese so special?
The milk comes from a farm-assured, closed herd of Friesian cows from Norbury Park farm. The farm is situated in Norbury Park, which is a mixture of woodland, grassland and various areas of farmland. Due to the range of habitats it is an important haven for many plants and animals and a large part of the park has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Secret of Norbury Blue Cheese?
Michaela Edge has been making Norbury Blue cheese since it began. Michaela is helped by her partner Neil Allam, who also farms watercress.The secret of this rich, creamy, vegetarian cheese lies in Michaela's special recipe. Michaela and Neil are passionate about the quality of the cheese, and carefully manage the process from the field right through to the cheese being placed on the plate.
How is Norbury Blue Cheese made?
Happy cows produce rich, healthy milk and so we do our best to keep our bovine friends smiling. The cows roam freely amongst walnut, hazel and sweet chestnut trees and feed on grasses all year long. The fodder that is grown on the farm is GM free.The cheese is made in the traditional way from batches of fresh milk, heated to body temperature. A live culture is added to start it off, followed by the addition of vegetarian rennet and allowed to set for about one and a half hours. The curds are 'cut' so that the whey is released and then loaded by hand into cylindrical moulds.
The cheeses are turned every four hours whilst the whey drips away. Each cheese is spiked with a five-pronged fork to aerate it. Each batch is left to mature for three weeks, during which time the delicate blue marbled effect is created. Every cheese is quality checked and labelled before it is pronounced ready for your plate.
Michaela and Neil are working on other cheese recipes and will soon bring out a range of cheeses. So watch this space!
Everything is utilised, such as the leftover whey that is fed to Princess Fiona. She is a Tamworth cross-bred with a Gloucester Old Spot - kindly referred to as 'pig'. Of course there is a limit as to how much 'pig' can drink on her own, and so Michaela and Neil anticipate having a large herd of pigs to drink up all the surplus whey.
For all cheese-related enquiries:
please call Michaela on 07799 231402 for information.
If you have email enquiries, please Norbury Blue.
