From Wyken Hall Farmers Market I bought this to try - Fleet Valley Blue Cheese from S.W. Scotland.
A rich, ripened, semi-hard blue cheese with sweet and savoury characteristics. Fleet Valley Blue has a buttery, mellow and savoury flavour with steely blue vein notes and a faint sweetness. The aroma is earthy and the texture firm and supple with a creamy finish.
Fleet Valley Blue cheese is made from unpasteurised milk from our farm based in the Fleet Valley in south west Scotland. This is an unpressed cheese, ripened over 3-4 months with an evenly spread veining of blue and grey.
The intensification of dairy farming has been a concern of ours for many years, so we’ve been working hard to come up with a different solution. Our big idea? A new method of dairy farming that keeps the calves with their mothers to suckle. Our ethical dairy model is based around treating the animals, the land, our environment and the people who work here with respect and kindness.
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| Eaten as a meal with a few home made cheese straws and some grapes |
How disappointing for you I have found very often that I have sampled a cheese and a deli. and it's been delicious so I buy some, get it home, and then it doesn't taste anything like the sample that I had in the deli.
ReplyDeleteI'm think they may have had it for a while - it was so dry
DeleteIsn't it disappointing when the real thing doesn't match up to expectations?
ReplyDeleteWe bought some local soft goat's cheese from the market stall, which was not cheap. It promised to be rich and flavourful. It wasn't. I may just as well have bought some of the much cheaper supermarket stuff and had the same end result.
The Extra Mature Cheddar from Aldi or Asda is 100% tastier than any I've tried - not so ethically produced I guess
DeleteOh dear, it doesn’t look appetising! To my taste buds you cannot beat Colston Basset Stilton, but so much depends on how the cheese is stored. There is a world of difference between Colston Basset bought from a supermarket compared to buying it from the cheese shop in Petworth where it is cut to order from the round and wrapped in proper cheese paper. We are eating so much freshly harvested from the garden (yellow and green courgettes, chard, spinach, beetroot, salads, herbs, garlic, potatoes, red gooseberries, white currants, rhubarb and raspberries) - it is proving a productive year and last night I was even thinking about extending my growing space. All the rain has helped and that temperatures have so far been below 28 degrees. After listening to Michael Moseley on Radio 4 the other week talking to Tim Spector I bought a bottle of Kefir from our farm shop which sells the raw milk I use for my yogurt making and I am now producing my own Kefir too. I haven’t bought any grains, simply followed Tim’s advice to start with a bottle of Kefir and when about a sixth of the total is left to add raw milk, shake it up well, leave in the fridge or a cool place for a day or two while it becomes kefir. We think of kefir as an exotic drink from India but pre-refrigeration it was quite usual in England. Have you tried it and do you have anywhere local that sells raw milk? I think you may have kept goats on the smallholding and I wonder what you did with their milk? Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteWe drunk the milk and I made soft cheese. For nearly 20 years we never bought milk except at Christmas when we had visitors
DeleteWhat a disappointment about the cheese - but I do like the look of your cheese straws!
ReplyDeleteThe cheese straw recipe is a favourite - it's on the recipe page
DeleteWhat a shame it was disappointing. I assume not a bargain price either, so you want something that was worth paying out for. Not quite sure how you get much milk from a suckler herd, but hey-ho.
ReplyDeleteVery dry and hard - not what I was expecting at all
DeleteYears ago we visited Nantwich covered market and bought loose Cheshire cheese by the slab - they just did 2 sorts - creamy and crumbly, we've never had quite such delicious cheeses since, shame about the cheese you tried.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
I'll keep trying others - but so far it's not been a complete success
DeleteYou have reminded me that I used to love blue cheese but haven't had it in ages. I may have to look for a salad recipe that uses it... Thanks, Sue.
ReplyDeleteI like blue cheese when it has a bit more flavour than this had!
DeleteBlue cheese is not my favorite. That said, at a restaurant they served a beef appetizer with a blue cheese dipping sauce and I loved it. a little melted cheese on beef was really tasty.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds a bit different. I don't eat beef at all nowadays
DeleteI wonder if the cheese was in storage a long time. That can make a big difference. But it's a disappointment after you've set up the context for a nice small meal and the main attraction doesn't do its job.
ReplyDeleteOh too bad! It looks and sounds [in their blurb] delicious. I love your cheese posts. And I enjoy trying new varieties--currently hooked on a French double cream [v soft and smelly! in a good way], called Delice de Burgogne. sp? If you have farmers markets to try, they often have cheese vendors and makers who offer free tastes?
ReplyDeletelizzy
How disappointing. Those cheese straws do look yummy. Is there a recipe?
ReplyDeleteSorry that the cheese didn't live up to expectations. I love trying out new cheeses. I love cheese. The cheese straws look lovely!
ReplyDeleteI really don't like blue cheeses, but Alan is a huge fan of any cheese. Yours just sounds very disappointing though.
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