Martin Moyden started
out life as a Shropshire dairy farmer, but a sideline in cheesemaking
soon became a full-blown obsession to the extent that he and his wife
Beth gave up farming altogether to focus solely on cheese.
“Cheese-making has
taken over my life and I felt I was stretching myself too far between
the farm and the cheese-making,” Martin told me last year, adding
that it was a “heart-wrenching decision” to leave farming.
It’s
a good job for cheese lovers that he did make the move because Mr Moyden’s Handmade Cheese is now able to produce much greater
quantities and is starting to gain recognition beyond the wild West
Midlands.
Based at an enterprise centre in Shropshire, the
company sources unpasteurised cows’ milk from local farms and makes
four main cheeses all named after local places: Blue Wrekin, White
Wrekin, Newport and smoked Newport 1665.
The company is
experimenting with a brie and a washed rind cheese, and has just
launched a new Caerphilly-style cheese called Caer Caradoc after a
nearby hill, where the cows that provide the milk graze (above).
Admittedly it’s not a match for the mighty Gorwydd Caerphilly at
this early stage, but it has a pleasant crumbly texture and lemony
tang.
Their best cheese (in
the Cheese Chap’s humble opinion) is Wrekin Blue. It’s quite
spicy with mineral notes, but it’s all wrapped up in a big blanket
of creaminess. Mr Moyden is definitely a name to look out for in the future.
Where to buy:
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