The farm in the North York Moors where you can stay over, make your own cheese and do yoga with goats

Now, Suzie and Jonty Birrell-Gray are developing a farm and cheese business in the heart of the North York Moors - and this weekend will see the first of the next round of cheese-making courses taking place at their farm.

It was the couple going on a course themselves years ago that gave them the idea of combining their love of cooking and food production with the goats and trying to get them to become a pedigree.

They left behind their house and chartered surveyor and accountant jobs in West Sussex in 2019 and literally turned up on the moors at Rosedale with a van and their animals - 49 goats, 10 ducks, 20 chickens, three horses, four dogs and two cats.

Since then they have developed Abbey Farm and the goat herd with a view to becoming a commercial cheese producer.

Of course, it takes time to build that up, so to supplement income in the meantime they converted a barn into a holiday cottage and added two shepherd’s huts to the offering while they set about the long and arduous journey with Environmental Health and the legislation needed to get cheese production off the ground.

Different recipes have been tried and tested, but that in itself takes weeks, even if to find out it isn’t quite right and so many factors such as the weather, humidity and even thunderstorms can affect the end product.

Jonty said: “It has been extremely hard. The cheese that we are making is 5 on the risk side because it is raw goats milk - high moisture content and moulded cheese. These things make it potentially the most dangerous.”

If they get the rubber stamp later this year, it is hoped their signature cheese, The Rosedale, and a second called Bell End Blue, could be sold in delis and used in farm cafes which are longing for a local cheese to use as there are no other producers in the area.

Rosedale is a far cry from the corporate life they left behind but Suzie was keen to return to Yorkshire.

She said: “We decided we wanted a different pace of life other than the city. We had goats in Sussex and I went on a goats cheese making course there and it spiralled out of control. We went from having five to having a hundred.

“I come from Leeds and this area was somewhere really special to me when I was a little girl. When we went for a day out I would say can we go to the White Horse. I moved away with my ex-husband but when I met Jonty we talked about escaping to the country and had been visiting various parts of Yorkshire.

“We were staying in Glaisdale and dropped into Rosedale and said ‘why did we not come here before’. We are close to the middle of the village but the middle of nowhere and that is what is so lovely.”

There are various courses and experience on offer at Abbey Farm which range from meeting the goats and cheese-tasting to goat-keeping, outdoor yoga with the goats in collaboration with Lisa Stevenson of Kismet Yoga at Stokesley and a having a go at making your own cheese.

This could be Halloumi or Goats Cheese with a view to learning basic skills to make your own at home that can be adapted to shop bought milk.

While Suzie is willing to share her time, expertise and goat knowledge - she won’t be sharing her secret recipes.

There is a space available on this weekend’s Yoga with Goats and also on May 28.