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The fate of British cheesemaking has been on a rollercoaster ride since the Queen took to the throne, even threatened to extinction at one point, but in the 21st century things are looking markedly better.

Cheese isn’t often regarded as a healthy food. Common opinion is that it is a good source of calcium but that the fat content, in particularly saturated fat means that low fat versions of cheese or yoghurt or milk are often given as better sources of the nutrients.

In more recent times however, the case for unpasteurised cheese has begun to be made. 

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A remarkable and unique blue cheese without starter cultures or added blue moulds or even the cheese being pierced to encourage the blueing, Bleu de Termignon requires a very specific set of circumstances to be made at all.  Catherine Richard is one of a handful of people still making this very rare cheese for the only four months of the year that her mountain chalet is snow free.

It takes great farming and cheesemaking skill to make Salers in the truly traditional way.  This is a cheese that genuinely can only exist as a product of a very specific way of farming, animal husbandry, milking skill and cheesemaking ability.  Geraud Delorme has learned this in a few short years and the quality of his delicious cheese really reflects the entire ecosystem of his farm.

Natural fermentation is a hot topic in the food scene with devotees to natural wines, beers, sauerkrauts, kimchi, sourdough breads.  There is natural fermentation in cheesemaking as well, using the natural flora of the milk.  Here we discuss what is involved in natural cheesemaking.

How to feed animals is a far-reaching topic that is influenced by climate, land price, productivity, breed of animal and seasonality.  Some of the factors governing choice of animal feed are summarized below.

As Father’s Day approaches, we have chosen to celebrate some influential men in the cheese industry for our June Cheese of the Month Subscription.                                                                                 

Transhumance, originally a French term deriving from the Latin trans humus (across the ground), refers to a practice of moving herds from summer grazing to winter grazing that has been part of farming animals since prehistory.

A decade ago, after years of experience maturing the cheese of others, Hervé (Mr Mons) set up his own dairy. The Laiterie de la Cote Roannaise initially produced a range of set yoghurts but with a local goats farm - the Gaec de Becajat - merely 5km away...

What's in a name? In the case of the catchallTomme, quite a lot. It is widely believed to originate fromtoma,which in Savoyard dialect simply meansa cheese made in the mountains. And really, given the variation amongst Tommes, it could just as well mean 'cheese'.