2010 Highlights

We have enjoyed a great year at Somerdale and there have been many social moments which have been captured by all of our camera's. Here is a sample of how life is for all of us at Somerdale; outside of the office...

Music by Trace Bundy

MARY’S DAIRY DIARY - DECEMBER 2010

Light is seeping fast out of the shortening days, spectacular days are so short, overcast days have twilight at noon.  This is the time of year my father died, making the dark days darker.  Little birds fleet over the cold landscape, escaping the hungry eyes of the buzzards who wait on the telegraph poles.  The deer get more and more inventive about how to get into my vegetable garden (what about a now 7 foot high electrified fence with a proximity alarm don’t they understand - it feels like we are training them to steeplechase).

CROPS  -  The crops are coming up well using the minimum tillage machine.  The soil is firm underfoot, even after a fair amount of rain.  The idea is that it will develop a good structure with more organic matter and less disturbance of all the myriad creatures that live in soil, and they give the plants access to nutrients that otherwise we have to add in.  Soil left undisturbed produces huge amounts of vegetation, so feels like there is a lot to understand about the way soil works, and we literally are just scratching the surface.

COWS  -  The autumn has been kind, and we hope to graze right up to Christmas.  We stop milking the cows to calve in February ‘dry them off’ to allow them to rest before calving and the next round of milking.  Then we’ll bring in any animals that need a little TLC, and graze the fatter animals on crops we’ve grown to hold them.  I was talking to a remarkable farmer from Somerset, Matt Bolas, who does the opposite and says that the lean ones thrive better outside.  I’ll have to try that out - there is always something to learn.  The autumn calving cows are going to the bull, so we bring them in a little sooner so adverse weather doesn’t affect them getting in calf.

CALVES AND HEIFERS  -  They are all tucked up in the barn now.  The spring calves went down with IBR, like a heavy cold that leaves some prone to pneumonia - they had been looking so well; so it’s sad to see them looking poor.  We treated them, and all but three came through.  We will now vaccinate - we think we brought the disease in when we brought in a few animals when we set up the autumn herd, even through the vet had given them a clean bill of health.  We’ve got the rest of the winter to get them back up to scratch, before they go to the bull in May.

CHEESE  -  We’ve been playing around with some ewe’s milk cheese - I’ve always wants to develop one.  We are beginning to think we are getting somewhere - taste it in the shop and give us your feedback.  The challenge is to make a cheese that doesn’t taste of fleece, and instead has our hallmark creamy complex balanced flavour with a long finish. 

I’m so pleased with how the mite busters are doing - as long as we keep at blowing the cheese with our invention, the mite is there but not that visible.  Will we be able to keep the mite from going under the cloth where we can’t get them?  Wait for the next instalment…….

PRIZES  -  At the World Cheese Awards we have provisionally won a Gold for Quickes Traditional Vintage Cheddar, Bronze for Quickes Traditional Mature Cheddar and Bronze for Quickes Traditional Extra Mature Cheddar.

HAVE A CHEESY CHRISTMAS  -  We are packing ready for Christmas, and we are making up baskets and selection packs - send a taste of Newton St Cyres to your friends, order by email, phone with a card.  We can send cheese to the UK, Europe by arrangement with the shop 01392 851000.  Last orders for posting to be in the shop by Wednesday 15^th December.

ALAN JENKINS  -  Alan is leaving us at Christmas time after 26 years as Farm Manager.   Over the years, he’s been a great contribution to the farm.  He & Trudi have bought a farm in South Africa near the Garden Route, it is brilliant he’s done so much here then is leaving to fulfill a dream he’s had for many years.  The new Farm Manager is Adam Reeves.

RECIPE  -   I’ve finally worked out how to cook the cardoons that Clarissa Dixon-Wright encouraged me to grow - you can get the seeds in all the vegetable ranges, but it’s taken me about 10 years of puzzling what to do with them.  They are such a good vegetable - they grow vigorously from November through to February in all but the hardest frost, and deer and other wildlife don’t eat them.  They are a variety of globe artichoke, but you eat the central part of the leaf. I pull a couple of leaves off the plant, and cut off the green bits.  I chop the core of the leaves into about 6 inch lengths, then pull out a few of the strings. Chop into about centimetre lengths, and put on lemon juice for flavour and to stop them discolouring.  Braise in a saucepan with a little olive oil, a few chopped anchovies  and some chopped garlic. I serve as a vegetable or as a snack with a little grated Quickes Traditional Mature Cheddar on top.  They are bitter and crunchy and completely addictive.

MARY QUICKE

Where in the World is Marian? Akron, Ohio

The West Point Market.........the internationally renowned Gourmet Food Store in Akron, Ohio.......a family business, whose roots date back to 1936.


We were there to support their annual British Promotion.

Marian

Rick Vernon, third generation of the
Vernon family and current CEO at West Point Market,
with Marian & Gerry

Russ Vernon, West Point Market's Owner,
with Diana Bole, Cheese Shop Manager along
with Marian & Gerry

Marian & Gerry with Christina from
West Point Market's Cheese Shop

Mary's Dairy Diary - November 2010

November has dark evenings when we can still remember the light ones, leaves are whirling off the trees when we can remember the green of summer, and chilly when the wreckage of summer lies broken all around.  Our amazing local geologist Richard Scrivener told us about the geology of Newton St Cyres.  Our rich red valley was left by floodwater scouring ancient desert mountains, Himalayas in their time, rushing down a deep depression left by a huge volcano on Dartmoor empyting the earth.  I see our soft land, round hills, fertile fields and lush woods, familiar and lovely, and this wild past makes me feel like a child exploring a strange garden, not knowing what I’ll see.

CROPS  -  The fields start to tell of next year, in that lovely velvety shot silk effect as the new shoots peep through the freshly tilled soil.  The minimum tillage machine leaves a rougher seed bed - you only finely cultivate just that tiny bit where the seed has gone in.  If it rains, while the soil is still warm, all the slugs have a feast on the succulent shoots, so we keep a look out and spread slug pellets if we need to. If you are organic, you plough and cultivate finely and press the soil down firmly to stop slugs, a choice between being heavier on the soil and fossil fuels or using chemical control - you pays your money and takes your choice.

The winter farmland birds enjoy our wild bird plots and stubbles, flocks of finches and buntings rising, scattering and setting down again.

CLOVER  -  On some of our fields surrounded by woods, Coldharbour and Western Coombe, we can’t keep the deer and boar off them enough to grow a sensible arable crop, so we’ve put in grass and red clover that fixes its own nitrogen fertilizer from the air.  The wildlife don’t seem to damage it as much - clover is bloating, like beans in the same family, not as sweet as a young wheat plant.  It’s looked good all year, and clover makes a lovely soil structure and produces a high protein feed.

CALVES  -  The youngest calves are tucked up in the barn, in the dry, and we will bring the rest of the heifers, the growing cows, in as the month goes on.  We’d like to keep them out as long as possible particularly this year: the hard winter and slow spring used more, and gave less, winter feed than usual, so the heifers grazing outside in kind weather feels just perfect, and who knows what weather we will get.  I love to see them out and contented as the leaves come off the trees, I love the oddness of it.

COWS  -  The spring calved cows stay out longer than the autumn cows.  The spring cows are getting late in pregnancy, heavy, mellow, coasting to holiday time, happy to graze the grass that is still lush but not so sweet.  The autumn cows are giving their peak milk, and are bulling, their hormones rushing to get in calf again, jumping each other and frisking.  To get in calf while they are giving the most milk needs spring grass and sun on their backs, and failing that, silage that time-shifts the warm weather, a nudge of grain and a warm shed.  The winter routines start, feeding in the troughs, scraping floors to keep them clean of manure, comfy beds - absorbent and soft paper beds (from recycled paper), on rubber mats (same stuff you find in playgrounds).

CHEESE  -  The temperature is comfortable in the dairy, warm and moist is pleasant when it’s cold outside.  Cheese needs warmth to knit together in the presses, although the heavy work of moving the moulds around is easier a little cooler, so we keep it balanced between people and cheese temperature.

The winter milk is creamier from the silage fed to the autumn cows and richer as the spring cows come to the end of their milking time.  To avoid this richness veering to over-acid and harsh flavours, we slow the make down and dry the curd a little by working it with our hands.  The feel, look and acidity of the curd tell us what we need to do as we aim to achieve our perfect flavour.

STORE  -  Our main store is emptying as we get cheese out for Christmas and the cows’ yield of milk slows down for winter.  As fast as the cheese leaves, we’ve pulled extra shelves in, so we can forklift all our older cheese from other stores into our magic mite machine, where our mite busting champions (just after they’ve made today’s cheese in the dairy) blow the cheese with compressed air to keep them clean and undamaged.

PRIZES  -  I’m very proud because we got a prize for almost everything we put into the British Cheese Awards, gold for Extra Mature Cheddar and Smoked, and silver for Goats, Mature Cheddar and Herb Cheddar and bronze for another Smoked and Mild Cheddar.

SHOP  -  Remember to order cheese by post in time for us to send it to your friends - make up a gift from goods in the shop, or send one of our suggested combinations.

RECIPE  -  Jane Timlett’s Spinach, cheese and potato pie:  Boil potatoes in their skins.  Chop onions and crush garlic, sweat in a little Quickes Traditional Whey Butter, add spinach - I find it as easy to cut it with kitchen scissors in the pan once it’s soft.  Boil away some moisture, add some cream, season and put into a pie dish.  Grate a good layer of Quickes Traditional Mature Cheddar on top, and put the potatoes through a ricer or mouli, to make a top layer.  Dab butter and seasoning on top and bake till golden brown.

MARY QUICKE

Marian & Gerry at Central Markets, North Texas

Marian and Gerry were on the road again in the continuation of their ongoing "cheese tour" spreading the word of English cheeses to the US market! In all three visited stores (Dallas, Plano and Southlake stores) they demonstrated "The art of Huntsman Cheese-making" as most people do not realise that Huntsman is a hand-crafted cheese.

We thought the last photo would be a little fun!......it is of two of the customers in their Texas Rangers baseball T-shirts. This was taken the morning after The Texas Rangers Baseball Team won the American Baseball League to become (THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS). They are now through to play the San Francisco Giants, (the National League Champions), in the final of the baseball WORLD SERIES.

Grand Opening of Giant Eagle's Market District Store - Columbus, Ohio

Marian attended the grand opening of the Giant Eagle's Market District Store in Columbus, Ohio. Here are some of the photos taken at the event...

Store Front

Cheese Display

Marian - at the display

Marian, Patty Solomon (Manager of Gourmet/Speciality
Cheese - Giant Eagle) and her colleague

Penny, Sharon and Marian

New Somerdale Team Profile Photos

Somerdale's new  profile photos have been added to the website. If you need to put a face to a name or have a better idea who you are speaking to over the phone... now you can!

Stephen Jones

Ernie Waldron

Jonathan Sykes

Alan Jenkins

Alice Manfield

Brenda Bell

Jo Dalton

Sam Fitzavon

Jon Riley

Where in the World is Marian? - Atlanta Foods

Atlanta Foods Sales Training program in Atlanta, Georgia.

Marian

Where in the World is Marian? - Cleveland, Ohio

Here are some photographs of our Booth at the Euro-USA Show, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio in September.

Marian

 



Where in the World is Marian? - Hollywood, Florida

This is an event that we participated in this past weekend, in Hollywood, south Florida. Gourmet Foods International are one of our Distributors and they held their Annual Fall Preview Show for their customers. Vendors such as Somerdale, had Booths at this event and it is something that we have been involved in for many years. 

Marian

Where in the World is Marian? - D&W Fresh Markets, Grand Rapids

Here are a few photos from my recent event held in conjunction with Sharon Bremner, Atlanta Foods International, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This was a ’Meet the Cheesemaker’ promotion and half price sale at D & W Fresh Markets in Grand Rapids, Michigan and featured, Cotswold, Red Dragon and Tintern.

Marian

Where in the World is Marian? - Metropolitan Market, Kirkland

Another selection of photographs of our activities this time at Metropolitan Market’s new store in Kirkland, Washington, as part of their ‘For the Love of Cheese Festival’.

Marian

MARY’S DAIRY DIARY - OCTOBER 2010

October, Indian summer or wild gales, hangovers from American hurricanes, whatever we get, we just know that the last vestiges of summer are disappearing as the sun gets lower and the mornings and evenings get darker.  Everything grows slower, it’s a time of roots going deeper, leaves falling all around, the last of the summer birds leaving.  The autumn carries a palpable sense of loss of summer.

It also carries the faint promise of next year – look carefully, and next year’s buds are there, next year’s calves are now mid term in the spring cows’ bellies.  I saw the dramatic sight of four young buzzards playing over the hill, joyfully wheeling, swooping, calling to each other:  the next generation has left home, and is looking to find a way in the world.  Sally from our office, working her dogs with friends saw a troop of wild boar, big males at either end, smaller ones of all sizes processing across the field quite heedless of the watchers.

CROPS  -  Next year’s wheat crop gets drilled this year, after clean crops if they were clean or after summer fallows or after the maize crop just harvested.  We will use the minimum tillage machine, scrabbling the surface, making a little seedbed just enough to nurture each individual seed, and without disturbing the earthworms and all the delicate universe of creatures that live in a well-structured soil.  The crops germinate fast in the still-warm soil and the damp soil.  Next year lets its presence known as the first shoots come through, a primeval talisman that winter doesn’t win for ever.

GRASS  -  The autumn flush of grass continues till the frost cools the soil, less growth than the spring but still a useful lift to all the animals, used to pecking out dry summer pasture.  Now is the time we grow a little more grass, let the pastures lengthen so grass is there to graze into November and December, when the grass growth slows right down.  This is the secret of grazing for 10 or 11 months – not that the grass grows enough all the time that we graze, but that we’ve stored it from now till then.  So we measure the grass growth, watch the grass cover increase, plan where the animals graze next and next so that the last fields we graze are the driest underfoot to cause least damage and to extend how long the animals keep out of the barns.

COWS  -  The spring calving cows are settling into late lactation, less and richer milk.  They slow down, progesterone-doped, happy to have you walk amongst them seeing how their backs are rounding out with the rich grass.  We ask them to graze tighter to leave clean fields so the spring shoots will be the sweeter and the frost won’t damage the over-wintered leaves.  Their milk can be more tricky to make into cheese, so we have our autumn calved cows to balance things up with some earlier lactation milk.

HEIFERS  -  Enjoy the sight of them in all the fields, as we start bringing first the youngest back to the barns out of the cooler weather, rain and mud.  We bring them in in their age groups, and they dash down the road, all hands on deck to get them into the right place, will they treat that flimsy bit of rope as a barrier so they don’t dash off into the woodland – yes, if you keep them moving, shouts of ‘Ho, ho’ and lots of running to head them off in the right direction.  We put it off as long as possible as until it gets wet and cold, they do much better outside, but eventually they must come in.

CHEESE  -  The milk gets more demanding as it gets richer, but it’s the skill of the cheesemaking to have it turn out as world class.  The heart of the matter is to make sure it doesn’t get acid too quickly, so it drops its calcium (dry acid cheese) or retains too much moisture – acid fast cheese.  You need some acidity to get the front flavour, too much and you get an acid spike to the flavour that is just boring at best or rank and bitter at worst.  I have this sense of our flavour: ‘creamy at the front, balanced and complex in the middle, and a long complex finish’ in posh and ‘long, round and nutty’ in my head, so we watch the pasture, the milk solids, the starter, the make and the maturing to get it just so.  It’s all work – we had a couple of vats of more acid cheese, and we think perhaps the vats where too big to really work every piece of the curd quite enough, not quite enough cheddaring to keep the acid development under control.  Not bad cheese, but not great, so it won’t get sold as Quickes Traditional Mature Cheddar.

PRIZES  -  I’m really excited that we won the trophy at the Frome Show for the best Farmhouse Mild Cheddar, the best Traditional Mature Cheddar and the mature also won best Traditional Cheddar, as well as a 2^nd for Extra Mature and Unpasteurized Cheddar.

At the Great Taste awards our Extra Mature Cheddar and Vintage won 3 Star Golds, the Goats Cheese won a 2 Star Gold and the Mature Cheddar a 1 Star Gold.

At the British Cheese Award we won Gold for Mature Cheddar and Extra Mature Cheddar, Silver for Hard Goats Cheese, Herb Cheddar and Unpasteurized Cheddar, Bronze for Oak Smoked Cheddar, Mild Cheddar and Vintage Cheddar.

RECIPE  -  Lady Rayner suggested that Quickes Traditional Smoked Cheddar goes beautifully with a ripe Conference pear – just the job for an easy dessert.

MARY QUICKE

Where in the World is Marian? - Metropolitan Market, Seattle

A selection of photographs from our activities at Metropolitan Markets, Queen Anne, Seattle, where we participated in their ‘For the Love of Cheese’ Festival (held outside in the store car park). You will note that we were featuring Cotswold, Tintern & Barbers 1833. Each of the stores made great displays of Barbers 1833 along with local Washington apples.

Marian