Yoredale Wensleydale maker gets ready for cheese festival
The only maker of unpasteurised cheese in Wensleydale has built a new dairy ahead of the annual Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival.
Curlew Dairy has transformed disused farm buildings in Carperby into a facility which, since becoming operational at the end of last month, has seen several tonnes of Yoredale Wensleydale cheese made by hand.
It is one of 14 food, retail and hospitality businesses participating in the Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival, which will see events taking place in various locations around the national park from October 11-18.
Until recently Curlew Dairy was based in a converted garage in Wensley.
Artisan cheese maker Ben Spence said the new location was ideal. “People are welcome to come by during the cheese festival, to see us making cheese that week through the vat room window,” he said.
"There will be samples to taste and there should be cheeses to buy. If you go an hour’s walk from Aysgarth Falls to Castle Bolton, you’ll almost pass the front door of this place.”
Mr Spence was pictured beside the first cheeses to be made at the dairy in a new video. He explained why his Yoredale Wensleydale looked so colourful and “fluffy”: “A garden of moulds grows through the cheeses as they age. This fluffy, kind of cat’s hair, mould that you see here, that is the mould that presents itself first.
"These cheeses will get patted down every week and eventually this mould will give way and allow other moulds to grow which form the tight rind that gives our cheese its characteristically mushroom, earthy flavours.
“In terms of flavour, we’re looking for the lemon acidity freshness of a Wensleydale towards the centre, with more earthy textures towards the rind.
"We aim for a texture that is akin to how farmhouse cheeses used to be: softer and more buttery than the mealy texture that many people would associate with Wensleydale today.”
He set up the dairy in 2019, initially on Mr Spence’s family farm. The milk used for making the cheese comes from a small herd of Holstein and Ayrshire cows.
Artisan cheesemaking in and around the Yorkshire Dales National Park has seen something of a resurgence during the past decade, with makers such as Stonebeck in Nidderdale, Piper Hole Goat Farm in Ravenstonedale, Lacey’s Cheese in Reeth and Courtyard Dairy near Settle finding a ready market.
Mr Spence said: “There is an appetite for food made with a lot less processing. That’s what our cheese is about. It’s made from local milk from Bolton Hall Farm’s herd. It’s handcrafted.
“The late David Hartley and the Wensleydale Creamery have done an incredible job at promoting Wensleydale as a brand. It’s what allowed us to take our cheese to America.
"You can’t put too high a value on the importance of Yorkshire and Wensleydale, and the National Park, as brands.”
Member Champion for Promoting Understanding at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Neil Heseltine, said: “The Cheese Festival shines a spotlight on the high quality and unique food and drink businesses in the Yorkshire Dales. There will be much good food and drink to discover, and the festival is spread right across the National Park and into surrounding areas.
“Curlew Dairy’s investment in new facilities in Carperby, which has been backed by the Farming in Protected Landscapes grants programme, is a very promising development. Through food and drink producers such as Curlew Dairy, people can understand and enjoy the special qualities of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.”