LOVELY & LOCAL
www.icenimagazine.co.uk
Issue 91 2020
New Feature: Lovely & Local
Welcome to the first of our ‘Lovely & Local’ articles. These articles aim to introduce you to some of our passionate local food and drinks producers across the region. For our first visit, we travelled to Ferndale Farm, home of Norfolk Dapple Cheese, to meet Arthur with his small team of Craig and Megan. As I entered the dairy, I was greeted with an aroma of sweet milk and yoghurt. Arthur, a friendly young man dressed in his whites, was all smiles and the passion in his work radiates off him. Their cheese story began with his mum, Elinor Betts, who started to make cheese in 2004. The day starts early with Mum (semi-retired from cheese making) heading to Abbey Farm in Binham to collect 2000 litres of fresh milk at
6am followed by a day-long process, as you can never hurry cheese making. Arthur explained that the milk is gently heated to the right temperature before the starter culture is added followed a little later by the rennet. This had happened just prior to my arrival, meaning that in the tank was something akin to creamy firm panna-cotta. Then the really hard work begins; Arthur and his team cut the curds by hand, then slowly, fingertip by fingertip, they ease the curds from the edges so every precious piece is available to be heated gently again while stirred. Once ready, the curds are lifted from the whey into moulds where they are pressed before drying for two days. After two days, cheeses, like the Norfolk Dapple, Carrow and Ruby, are lovingly coated in butter and wrapped in untreated cotton before heading to the maturation room where they are turned regularly and can hibernate for 4-6 months. They also make a
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