Coeur de Berger & Corne du Diable from Cyril & Stephanie Vanderstein

Cyril Vanderstein and his wife Stephanie established their organic farm in 2017 rearing French Alpine goats at the Chevrerie des Perrieres near Lambesc in Provence.  They are also establishing a grove of olive trees and produce their own oil in November after the cheesemaking season has finished.

They farm at lower altitudes than some of our provencal producers and their goats graze as they are taken for a daily walk alongside the irrigation canal that lies to the side of their land.  Cyril maintains that if left to graze without movement, the goats stop eating and instead start to destroy the pasture.  Although they grow alfalfa for the goats to eat, it is the leaves that they eat off the trees and more varied grazing that they have on their daily walk that helps keep their rumen working well.  They aren't given alfalfa until after their walk so they are nice and hungry to graze on the pasture with more variety.  In the interests of increasing the fibre in their diets also, the alfalfa they are given is chopped up so they can’t just pick at the delicate leaves as this would lead to bloating.

They have 40 milking goats each one with a name beginning with N and are keen to keep the farm small scale as, this way, they can manage the animals, cheesemaking and local markets just between the two of them.  From April to July the goats are milked twice a day, after that as milk decreases, they are milked once a day in the morning.  In October, the male goat is put in with the milkers and from then on, the season ends.

The airy barn with a list of the goats names

When they have 2 milkings, the morning milk is left to ripen with a starter culture before evening milk is added.  When there is only one milking the incubation time in the tank is shorter.  They begin the season with a bulk starter that is then used each day and the recipe is a more rennet heavy variant on the lactic set, which we refer to as mixed coagulation. The milk in the tank is held at 20C but then warmed to 30 for the make.  The set is only for 3 hours, considerably shorter than a lactic set which can often take 12 hours or more but significantly longer than a purely rennet set which tends to be 30 to 45 minutes.  After ladling into moulds, the cheeses are turned and remain in the make room at 20C for 12 hours during which time they will be turned again.  After they have been dry salted, 2 twigs of thyme are placed onto the Coeur de Bergers and a few different varieties of whole peppercorns onto the Corne du Diable and then they are left to dry and then mature on until a pale cream rind has formed.

Both have the pleasing freshness of a lactic cheese with notes of citrus & fresh cream in the pastes.  The geotrichum wrinkled rind lends a slight hazelnut note and in the case of the Corne du Diable, the heat from the peppercorns is intended to echo the mention of the devil in its name.  Appropriate also as the goat used to be known as the symbol of the devil!  With Coeur de Berger, the thyme imparts a subtly herbaceous woody note.

Jon with Cyril & Stephanie