About Neal’s Yard Dairy
We buy cheese from about seventy cheesemakers on farms around Britain and Ireland and we sell the cheese in our two shops in London and to shops and restaurants all over the world.
Our main aim is to keep in close contact with cheesemakers on one hand and customers on the other and above all to be in very close contact with all the cheese passing through our hands. We visit some cheesemakers very often; I select our cheddars by visiting the West Country every eight weeks and tasting through young cheese to select the batches that will be matured on for us. Apart from trying to find the best cheese available this is also when the cheesemaker can get a sense of how their cheeses are being received by customers.
Many of the cheeses we buy are either matured on the farm or in our own maturing rooms in Bermondsey which are in brick railway arches under the main line from London Bridge to Dover. The insulation provided by the venerable Victorian brick work helps us maintain good conditions for the cheese: humid and cool. A team of five take care of the cheese, turning the cheeses and sometimes brushing or washing them until they ripen.
The mature cheese is sent out to our own shops or in our own vans through London or by trucks all over the world. But our job doesn’t stop there. A carefully selected and perfectly ripened cheese can suffer in transit or at its destination so we do our best to keep in contact with customers to ensure all is well.
The website has taken a long time to prepare and I hope it gives good background information. But it is no substitute for coming into our shops, or shops and restaurants that we supply, and tasting and talking about the cheese.
Randolph Hodgson
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| For more information about cheeses listed bellow go to
Neal’s Yard Dairy website |
Appleby’s Cheshire
Ardrahan
Beenleigh Blue
Berkswell
Cardo
Cashel Blue
Chabis
Childwickbury
Colston Bassett Stilton EN | FR | IT
Coolea
Cornish Yarg
Cotherstone
Crozier Blue
Doddington
Dorstone
Durrus
Finn
Flower Marie
Golden Cross
Gorwydd Caerphilly
Gubbeen
Hafod
Harbourne Blue
Innes Log
Isle of Mull Cheddar
Keen’s Cheddar EN | FR
Kelsey Lane
Kilcummin
Kirkham’s Lancashire |
Laverstoke Park Mozzarella
Little Ryding
Lincolnshire Poacher EN | FR
Milleens
Montgomery’s Cheddar EN | FR | IT
Ogleshield
Perroche (plain & herb)
Ragstone
Seator’s Orkney
Shropshire Blue EN | IT | FR Wholesale Only
Single Gloucester, Smart’s
Sleightlett
Sparkenhoe Red Leicester
Spenwood
St Gall
St James
Stawley
Stichelton
Stinking Bishop
Strathdon Blue
St Tola
Ticklemore
Tunworth
Tymsboro
Verulamium
Waterloo
Wensleydale, Hawes
Westcombe Cheddar
Wigmore
Woolsery |
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| NON BRITISH CHEESES |
Brie de Meaux, Donge France
Comte France Wholesale only
Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano Italy
Feta, Barrel Aged Greece |
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Copyright 2009 © Neal’s Yard Dairy
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For more information about company and their excellent cheeses go to Neal’s Yard Dairy website
Camembert was invented in 1791 by Marie HAREL, a woman farmer from Camembert advised by a recalcitrant priest. In 1890, an engineer Mr RIDEL invented a wooden box which was used to carry the cheese and helped to send it for longer distances. Because of the lack of sufficient protection rules, Camembert was imitated outside of Normandy, and even if foreign countries. In 1926, the Court of Appeals in Orleans stated that the name “camembert” is a generic term, belonging to the public domain.
Since 1983, the ladle moulded Camembert produced with raw milk in Normandy is protected by the French Label of Origin (AOC).
For more information go to Camebert-AOC website.
Chaumes
Chaumes is a cow’s milk cheese from Périgord (South West of France), made by traditional cheese-making processes. Translated literally, “chaumes” is French for stubble.
Based upon traditional Trappist-style cheeses, it is a rather popular cheese among modern French varieties, in particular with children. It is a soft pale cheese with a rich full-bodied flavour and smooth creamy and quite rubbery texture. Its aroma is generated by the cheese’s bright tangerine-orange soft rind. The rind appears after several washings of the crust, along with brushing with some ferments.
Maturation of the Chaumes takes four weeks. It is used as a table cheese and also for grilling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaumes_cheese
” LEPETIT, Un grand nom qui se mérite ”
LEPETIT is the most important and the oldest cheesemaker for traditional Camemberts.
In 1872, Léontine and Auguste LEPETIT open in St Pierre sur Dives (Calvados) on the street going to Thiéville the first establishment under their name : LEPETIT. Auguste LEPETIT is learning his know-how as cheesemaker since 1870 by working with his neighbour and friend Léon SEREY, himself producing Camemberts in Bretteville sur Dives.
In 1875, the activity of the firm is diversified : they begin to sell eggs and butter for which the package is specially adapted for long travels.
In 1890, Léontine and Auguste LEPETIT acquire the beautiful and vast Domain of Saint Maclou in Sainte Marie aux Anglais near Saint Pierre sur Dives. This domain is located in the famous ” Vallée d’Auge “. It remains still today the place where the Camembert LEPETIT is produced.
