Steve Jefcoate, who has been one of our cheesemakers here for 10 years, has recently flown out to Afghanistan on a security building mission as part of his duties with the Territorial Army.

Steve, who is also the son-in-law of one of our longest serving members of staff, Richard Villis, has actually been away training for the last six months in preparation for this tour.  Steve’s training included two weeks spent in Cyprus getting used to operating in the heat, all before flying out to Afghanistan with Taunton based, B Company, 6 Rifles.

Steve is a much-loved member of our team here at Cricketer and not only does he have many friends at the Cricketer, but as he is married to the daughter of Richard Villis it means he actually has a lot of family here.  Richard Villis works alongside his two brothers, Anthony and Nigel so Steve works with his father–in-law and two uncles-in-law as well!!

We are all very proud of Steve and of what he is doing, and the whole of Cricketer Farm wishes him well and looks forward to his safe return in six months time.

Good luck Steve.

Greg.

There has been a big change here at Cricketer Farm (but don’t worry our Westcountry cheese is still just as delicious!),  our Managing Director  Paddy O’Keefe is moving within the business to become MD of Cricketer’s sister company, St Helen’s Farm, in Yorkshire and Greg Parsons has joined us as our new Managing Director.

Greg has spent three years as Commercial Director at Ashley Chase, which produces the Ford Farm branded cheeses, (so he joins us with all the right experience!) before that Greg spent a very successful seven years across various senior roles at Dairy Crest UK Ltd – so it’s fair to say he knows cheese inside out!

Greg will not only help us continue the work we do providing the supermarkets across the UK with our  delicious lower fat cheeses, he will also help us to spread the word about Nether Stowey Reserve, our first Cricketer branded Cheddar, which has already proven a hit with customers of The co-operative!

We have now said a fond farewell to Paddy but although he is off to Yorkshire, we won’t miss him to much as he is going to remain as a Director of Cricketer Farm – so we’ll still see plenty of him!

Jo.

We’ve had a cracking start to 2011 and we’re only a few weeks in!! Our first ever branded Cheddar cheese, Nether Stowey Reserve, is being really well received in Co-operative stores up and down the Country and we’ve had some great feedback from journalists as well! 

From the Independent to Good Housekeeping they have all loved the cheese and in April we should see two of our very own Villis brothers (shown above) appearing in Country Homes & Interiors – so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

Back to the farms and Debbie from Hartland Farm has told me that their herd is still warm and cosy inside the barn – just waiting for the Spring, until they see some more sunshine before they can get back out into the beautiful fields of Devon. Before that they will all have veterinary checks, just to make sure they are nice and healthy and then they’ll be back to chomping on fresh grass!

Jo.

Here at Cricketer Farm there is one thing that is always the hot topic of conversation at this time of year ………..what to have on our Christmas cheeseboards of course!  I personally love a bit of St Helens Goats’ Cheese or some rich creamy Gorgonzola, but this year, pride of place will go to Nether Stowey Reserve our specially selected Mature Cheddar!

We’ve had a fantastic year here at Cricketer Farm, starting in February when Stowey Court Farm Shop opened on site.  Run by Matthew and Nicola Lowe from Bath Bridge Bakery in Bridgwater, the farm shop is packed full of delicious, carefully sourced local produce including fresh breads from Bath Bridge, locally butchered meat from EW Hills & Son in Cannington and local jams from Rose Farm in Wedmore, not to mention fantastic local cheese from Cricketer.  It also has some fantastic Christmas gift and food ideas in stock at the moment! The farm shop is doing very well and it has certainly made lunch times a lot more interesting!

We had great success at the Devon County Show and Royal Bath & West Show with a total haul of 14 awards and two trophies for our cheese, which was enough to keep us all smiling through the summer, roll on next year!

But perhaps the most exciting part of 2010 though has to be the launch of Nether Stowey Reserve, our first ever branded Cheddar cheese.  Chosen for its delicious smooth, rich, mature flavour it has been a real hit and is now available nationally in Co-operative stores – I can’t wait to relax over Christmas, with a nice glass of red and my carefully selected cheeseboard with our cheddar in place!

Thank you to our customers and suppliers big and small for supporting us during 2010; special thanks go to the dairy farmers who supply us with  milk and the whole team at Cricketer Farm who make it all happen!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year!

Jo.

With this blog I thought I would hand back to some of the people that we simply could not make our cheese without – Debbie and Andrew Lewis from Hartland View Farm on the edge of Exmoor in North Devon.  Debbie and Andrew have a 325 strong herd of Pedigree Holsteins which supply us with some of  our wonderful Westcountry milk which helps give our cheese its distinctive qualities.

So over to Debbie…………………….

September for us is a time where we take a step back from the farming so that we can prepare for our cows to come in from the fields.  We turn our hand to building and repair work to make sure our cows are warm, dry and comfortable through the winter months, until they can get back out onto the pastures in spring.

In October we harvested the maize that we planted all the way back in April.  The maize is then used to feed our cows during the winter.  We have also harvested a small amount of Fodder Beet, which is basically a root crop a bit like a giant carrot in shape I think it probably tastes a bit like turnip (I haven’t ever tasted one myself!). The cows absolutely love it though – it’s like chocolate for cows!

The fodder beet is chopped in a mixer wagon (basically a large food processor on wheels!) and they are now eating that fresh, which is a nice transition from fresh grass during the move inside.  Gradually we have been bringing the herd inside as the fields are just too muddy for them at the moment – and of course they much prefer to be in the warmth of the barn!

Debbie.

As part of our blog we like to talk a little bit about a ‘day in the life’ of the various people in our team, without whom we couldn’t produce our delicious cheese. So this time around we are really pleased to introduce Ed, our Transport Manager who, along with Mark, Steve, Pete and Phil (helped on occasions by Nigel and Richard) collects milk from the dairy farmers in Somerset and North Devon who supply us.

During the bad weather last winter our drivers never missed a single collection – even though they sometimes had to be pulled out of the snow by the farmers in their tractors – they still carried on – and for that we really salute them!

Jo.

 ____________________________________________

 Tuesday 21st September 2010

Today it’s the early run; I’m up at 1.30am and into work for a 2.00am start! First off I make my way to two farms near Muddiford, Barnstaple. On arrival at the first farm I have to stir up the milk by switching on a mixer in the tank and then take samples to test, one of which gets sent to the National Milk Laboratories to ensure the milk is perfect for use.

At the first farm I load up 2,000 litres of milk – that could fill a lot of bowls of cornflakes!

My next stop is a little over three miles away where I fill up with 16,500 litres of milk. The time is now 4.45 am. When I arrive back at Cricketer Farm, we take our own tests to ensure the milk is just right prior to  pumping out the milk into one of our silos, before you know it its pasteurised and ready for us to make cheese with.

It’s now 7.30am, time to leave for my second run of the day to Burnham on Sea, Somerset, where I collect from five farms. This takes around three hours so I’m back to the dairy for around 11.30am. After I unload the milk I give the tanker a good clean inside and out, those dusty Devon and Somerset country lanes can make the truck pretty messy!

At 1.30pm its lunch time for most, but for me it’s clocking off time. Tomorrow morning it all starts again, but I get to have a lie in – I don’t start until 6.00am!!

Zzzzzzz

Ed.

Saturday 11th September was the Frome and District Agricultural Society Show.  This year we not only entered into the awards, but for the first time in a couple of years we had our own stand at the show so people could come and taste our cheese for themselves – which was great fun!

Peter Derbyshire our Dairy General Manager and I manned the stand from 8.30am until about 1pm, when we actually ran out of cheese to sample -which is surely a good sign!

We were situated in the Cheese Pavilion next to Hecks Cider and the tribute act, the Mangled Wurzels. Needless to say, being sandwiched between live music and some of Somerset’s finest cider, made for a very lively and entertaining weekend!

We sampled Extra Mature and Mature Cheddar, Mature Lighter Cheese and Mature Half Fat cheese. It was really interesting to see people taste the four cheeses, so that they understood the difference between them all. We had some great feedback on all four – so thanks to everyone who came to see us.

In terms of the awards we had quite a haul! We won a Gold, Silver and Bronze for our Half Fat Mild Cheese, Bronze for Lighter (Reduced Fat) Mild Cheese, Bronze for Mild Cheddar and a Bronze award for Whey Butter and Double Cream. Huge thanks go to the whole team at Cricketer Farm for all the hard work, but also to our Westcountry dairy farmers; without them we wouldn’t have any cheese let alone so many awards!

The Cheese Show and Award season is over now for another year. We have one last award – our Chairman Angus Wielkopolski has been shortlisted for an award at the Farmers’ Weekly, Dairy Farmer of the Year 2010 Awards. Angus has been recognised for the work he does at St Helen’s Farm, our sister company. At the farm in Yorkshire they produce delicious fresh goats’ milk, some of which gets sent to Somerset for us to turn into goats’ cheese.

We’ve all got our fingers crossed for you Angus.

 Jo .

At Cricketer Farm there is one thing we definitely cannot make our cheese without – the freshest West Country milk, and we get this from a group of selected dairy farmers, like Debbie and Andrew Lewis from Hartland View Farm on the edge of Exmoor in North Devon (in the photo above).  Their family have been farming in the area for over 50 years so you could say they are the experts in their field!

Without milk from the Lewis family and other carefully selected farmers, who work very hard to supply us their delicious milk, we couldn’t make our award winning cheese, so we thought that it was important to tell you a little more about what they do, how they look after their animals and how ultimately they produce the milk to make our cheese.  First up, it’s harvest and time to prepare for winter!   

 Jo.

So over to Debbie…………………….

August is a very busy time at  Hartland View Farm, as it is the time for harvest and so some more good weather would be very much appreciated. We have been collecting straw from all the neighbouring arable farms which we will then use for bedding the animals in the winter. Our cows have been enjoying the sunshine on their backs which is great to see after the inconsistencies of recent summers.  From 1^st April to 1^st October our herd are out grazing in the sunshine all day which they love, and we now have all the straw we need to keep them warm and dry come the winter months as well! 

Debbie.

Welcome to the first ever Cricketer Farm blog. On the blog we will be talking all about our wonderful dairy farmers, how we make our cheese using traditional recipes and what new types of cheeses we’re developing. At this time of year though only one thing dominates our mind - the Nantwich International Cheese Show (the Oscars of the cheese world!).

 It is now less than a month away to the Show where we have exhibited for the past few years; the trade day takes place on Tuesday 27th July 2010 and the show is then open to the public on Wednesday 28th July 2010 so preparations are well under way.

Our stand is nearly ready and I’m looking forward to seeing the changes we suggested for the stand come to life. The hotel is booked  (in fact we booked our hotel over five months ago as the Nantwich area can get pretty busy during show time!).

The van is ready and I will be loading up with the very best that Cricketer Farm has to offer before hitting the road. Everyone seems to know everyone in the cheese industry which means events like Nantwich are always great fun. I’ll be having a few early nights before going up in preparation!

Click here for further information on the show, and if you are attending then please come and say hello, we are on stand 6, and I promise you can taste some of our award-winning traditional cheese!

 Jo Carter