Yorkshire cheesemaker creates new variety of feta to help struggling sheep farmers

Thirsk-based Shepherds Purse will begin to sell Fettle in 150g blocks from May 4 to ensure their suppliers of sheep's milk are still able to earn a living.

The family-run business works with sheep farmers who saw orders drop drastically when restaurants began to shut, and the industry lost all but two of its 22 processors in the space of just a few days.

Shepherds Purse has now increased its weekly milk order by 75 per cent and begun production of the feta-like cheese ahead of the planned launch date.

Fettle is a salad cheese made with whole ewe's milk with a slightly crumbly texture and a lemony flavour.

Managing director Caroline Bell said: “From the beginning of the crisis, we have been acutely aware of our place in the food chain and our responsibility to support our suppliers and our customers as much as possible. We rely on them and they rely on us. Every change in the supply chain and every gap has significant knock-on effects. We’re working hard for our cow’s milk and water buffalo milk suppliers too, but with this project we are working hard to counter the market distress for our sheep milk farmers, and we will need the support of retailers, and ultimately customers, to ensure its success.

“It has taken a tremendous amount of work from our small team and our key partners to get this reformatted product ready for market so quickly. From making the extra cheese to designing and printing the labels and the outer case packaging, and extra design work for the campaign, it’s been incredible, I couldn’t be more proud of our team and our partners.

“It’s been essential that we have invested in and continue to support our sheep milk farmers so that they can survive this crisis by making this amazing Fettle cheese, and now we really need our retailers’ and customers’ support to achieve that final step - to get it onto customers’ plates. The extent to which we can continue to buy extra milk from the farmers to help to ensure their survival through this crisis, will depend on how much of this new Fettle, and our other cheeses, customers can buy and enjoy.”

The artisan cheese company makes nine different varieties of speciality cheeses, including Harrogate Blue and Yorkshire Blue. Caroline's mother first began making cheeses for people with cow's milk allergies in 1989, and the brand has since grown to employ 30 people, with Caroline and her sister Katie Matten at the helm. The business is still based at the Bell family farm, Leachfield Grange at Newsham, near Thirsk.

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