Pitchfork Cheddar

Type: Hard
Milk: Raw cow's milk
Rennet: Animal
Location: North Somerset, England

One of the 2 founder members of the Trethowan Brother's Dairy, Todd Trethowan cut his teeth on the retail counter at Neal’s Yard Dairy in the 1990s. Set on restoring Caerphilly-making to his family farm in West Wales – a cheese whose legacy had all but died out at farmhouse level – he learnt the requisite sales skills, then set his sights on working with the one remaining traditional Caerphilly producer, Chris Duckett.

Fast forward to 2013 & the stability of cheese-grade local milk production began to judder. They looked across the Severn Estuary to Somerset, the home of Cheddar – an area with a long-associated history with Caerphilly. After 3 years of pure Caerphilly production, the regional call of Nature prevailed & they began making Cheddar. 

Crucially, they work to a slower acidification recipe which emulates production advocated in the 1920s writings of Dairy Microbiologist Dora Saker, who recorded some of the last pre-industrial Cheddar recipe formats, to phenomenal effect. We think their cheese is the epitome of classic Cheddar excellence, as do the judges at the World Cheese Award where it was awarded Best of British in recent years.

Pitchfork Cheddar reaches our counter at 13-16 months old and retains a suppleness that allows its warm, earthy undertones and bold acidity to shine.
Clothbound in lard.