Cheese making day
Pete and I hired the car and set off on a sunny Thursday afternoon heading for Chard in Somerset. The reason? We had a cheesemaking course to attend!
It was a birthday present for Pete last year but we hadn’t been able to make any of the dates in 2007. Because it was a fair distance we camped over the night before. It was lovely pitching up as the sunset, cooking tea on the stove and sampling some somerset cider.
On the Friday morning we packed up and set off to Magdalen Farm. Magdalen Farm is home to The Magdalen Project, an environmental and educational charity based on a beautiful 132-acre organic farm in deep countryside on the Dorset / Somerset border.
Our course was held by Rita Ash, a quintessential english lady who has made cheese for over 40 years at home as well as teaching it in agricultural colleges and set ups all around the globe.
Although we didn’t get to make cheese (it takes a minimum 24 hours) we saw each stage of the process (minus the maturation) and got to sample some of Rita’s ‘Blue Peter cheeses’: Here’s some I made earlier.
Delicious! The lunch was fabulous - everything we ate had been grown on the farm and made that morning. Potato and mint soup, quiche, salad, strawberry, onion and balsamic salad, stuffed peppers and followed by chocolate mousse.
It’s only a matter of time before I get round to trying to replicate it at home. It seems easy enough - I just need a few pieces of equipment and I’m ready to go! I shall post pics of any cheeses I make as proof.
Visit the Magdalen Project website here for more information on what they do and what courses are on offer - www.themagdalenproject.org.uk
It really is a beautiful place and we will definitely be heading back!