King Stone Dairy has doubled its production capacity and is launching new hard cheeses after opening a second dairy at Manor Farm in Chedworth, Gloucestershire.
Cheesemaker David Jowett has taken over a second site on the farm, which is dedicated to making hard cheese using two vats previously used by Jasper Hill in the US where Jowett once trained. The original dairy will focus on soft cheeses, including Rollright and Yarlington.
The expansion will increase production space to 5,000 sq ft and will double capacity from the current 50 tonnes a year, enabling the business to take 100% of the farm’s milk. A new 3,000sq ft maturation space is also being constructed. Two new cheeses are being launched, including Burford – a semi-hard washed rind Appenzeller-style cheese, which comes in 6kg wheels and is aged for six months. It is named after a nearby village.
“Manor Farm is one of the oldest organic farms in the UK with herbal leys and complex pastures rich in flowers, herbs and grasses,” said brand ambassador Sam Wilkin.
“We deliberately wanted to capture that summer milk in the cheese.”
Jowett is also developing an Ossau-Iraty-style sheep’s milk cheese called Bibury, using milk from the flock previously owned by Berkswell producer Ram Hall Dairy.
As reported in FFD last month, Ram Hall has now closed and Berkswell is no longer being made. The sheep have been sold to BlackLion Vodka in the Cotswolds, which will use whey left over from Jowett’s new cheese to make vodka. King Stone has also developed new branding for its labels, packaging and website. The new designs were developed by Saltwood Studio.
This article first appeared in the December 2023 edition of Fine Food Digest.
