THE BIG CHEESE Behind the scenes

>> “We’re unusual in the industry in that we produce our own ranges but we also innovate for our other customers,” says Gemma. “Perhaps other cheesemakers across the UK concentrate on one or two core products, but we’re much more flexible in our approach, so necessarily we’ve had to become absolute experts in the technicalities of the cheesemaking process.”

Gemma’s father Steve Grinstead was an artisan back in the mid-noughties, albeit creating wood burning stoves and fireplaces. The family were keen foodies and enjoyed their cheese as consumers, but not as producers, although Steve did experiment with smoking bacon, meat and cheese… probably not over the stoves he was making and selling, but if you squint a little and tilt your head to one side, there’s a (very) tenuous connection to fire.

One of Steve’s more successful products was his smoked cheese, which the family began to sell at farmers’ markets. Soon Steve fancied producing his own cheese to smoke and sourced milk from the now closed Rich Pastures dairy, utilising their raw (i.e.: neither homogenised nor pasteurised) milk to create his own cheese, experimentally at first then for commercial production from about 2007.

The family moved to Thorpe St Peter, four miles from nearby Wainfleet, and the rest is history. Today the operation has grown considerably. Whilst Steve is still involved in the business, daughter Gemma and son Matt are at the helm too.

Output is a distinctly healthy 175 tonnes of cheese a year, which equates to about 1.2m of their signature barrels, and the company employs around 25 people at its two-acre site.

Lymn Bank Farm’s skill though is the company’s nimbleness and its ability to innovate. Whilst other artisan dairies across the country concentrate on just a few core products, Lymn Bank’s speciality is its ability to produce many different products and to innovate and experiment, especially in the respect of creating new flavours.

Product development, whether for its in house products or contract customers, usually takes place in the afternoon, subject to the presence of photographers and engineers.

Life at the dairy begins at about 7am each morning. Cleaning and sanitising takes an hour or two, and after that, until early afternoon, production takes place, after which the team splits in two, with half the team packing finished products and the other half cleaning and sanitising ready for the following day when the team once again cleans the already clean dairy, just to make sure hygiene is flawless. Gemma, Matt and the team have ensured that production at the company is now an even split, 50/50 between their customers’ products and their own ranges.

The company’s website and its farm shop and retail customers were historically a smaller part of the business, with much of the dairy’s own products being sold at county shows and so on, nationwide.

With Covid knocking county shows on the head in 2020, the dairy has this year had more time to approach more retailers, and they’ve been greeted very warmly.

2020 also afforded Gemma the chance to create a new website enabling consumers to buy their cheese directly, and the firm has also come on board with Yummy, the county’s newest online food service, enabling the delivery of local food right to your door.

Lymn Bank’s Skegness Blue cheese was the firm’s original product, followed by Sunset Blue. The former is akin to a blue brie and is an award winner. Success with these lines spurred the family on and they began to sell their Just Jane mature cheddar. >> Lymn Bank’s Skegness Blue cheese was the firm’s original product, followed by Sunset Blue. The former is akin to a blue brie. Success with this spurred the family on and they began to sell their Just Jane mature cheddar...

Top/Left: Once the curds and whey are separated, cheese is placed in truckles and left to settle.

Above: The company’s larger truckles are turned during ripening to allow all surfaces of the cheese in early aging days to dry evenly.

Left: Heart of Lincolnshire is Lymn Bank Farm’s delicious mature cheddar encased in wax.

>> It’s named in tribute to the East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre’s restored AVRO Lancaster, and production of the cheese has been on the go for about eight years. The firm’s Nibble Nose truckles are waxed, and include a number of flavours from red onion to chilli to orange and whisky.

But where things become really interesting is with in dairy’s 18 different flavoured barrels. From caramelised red onion or cranberry to limoncello or a hot & spicy version, you’ll find a treat to suit your palate, thanks to the cheesemaker’s ability to produce in comparatively smaller batches than other dairies and hence offer such a broad range of flavours.

Lymn Bank Farm now also works alongside Huttoft-based Farmer Brown’s Ice Cream, and uses Darren Brown’s Friesian/Holstein flock’s raw milk, completing pasteurisation on site. It’s a partnership that works well since ice-cream producer Darren is busiest in the summer and Lymn Bank is busier in the cooler months.

We’re not allowed to reveal too much about the production process as the success of Lymn Bank Farm’s range is partly due to the time the family has invested in development of their cheese and in ‘trial and error’ attempts to perfect their processes during their early days.

What we can say, though, is that generally milk is pumped into the dairy, and heated up prior to one of a number of different starter cultures being added.

There’s just a 0.5°c margin of error in the temperature of the milk, which means the process has to be as tightly controlled as the dairy’s hygiene processes. >>

DISCOVER YUMMY Fresh local food – including Lymn Bank Farm Cheese – delivered right to your door...

Lymn Bank Farm is just one of a number of local suppliers you can buy from using Yummy. Yummy is a new food delivery service which delivers produce from local butchers, bakers, fruit & veg suppliers, fishmongers and other local food businesses, with shopping delivered straight to your door. How does it work? Simply visit www.yummy.co.uk and browse through the different products available. Once you’ve chosen your products from each of our different Yummy partners, you complete one single secure checkout. Next, we visit each of our partners in turn, collect each of the different products in your order, then pack them safely and delivery them using our fleet of our refrigerated vehicles. We’ll deliver your Yummy box to your doorstep which means you can enjoy local food, from local suppliers, delivered to your door for maximum convenience. As well as local produce, Yummy has lots of practical groceries too such as milk, butter, honey, and sliced bread. n Discover Yummy now by visiting www.yummy.co.uk... you won’t be disappointed!

>> Vegetable rennet is used to coagulate the milk and split the curds (the solids) and the whey, which is eventually drained off and used as high protein animal feed.

Once the curds are lumpy they can be cut into strips, and once again the exact process for this is a bit of a secret because it’s a key element in determining the texture of the finished cheese.

Hard cheese such as cheddar for example, has been cut more and consequently loses more moisture than cheese whose eventual texture is to be more like a moist squidgy brie.

The cheese is allowed to ‘pitch’ or settle prior to the whey being drained off, and thereafter production processes diverge according to whether you’re making a blue cheese (in which case it’s put into moulds and salted the following morning) or a cheddar (which is broken down and reformed using an extruder).

“It really is a complex business but it never fails to fascinate us – or people who come to visit us – that you can vary so dramatically what is fundamentally the same product.”

“We’ve come to love product development, and dad is a sort of unofficial Cheese Professor… but the proof is in the pudding, or rather the truckle, because we’ve become really well respected in the industry.”

“There’s no pleasure like curling up with a glass of wine, some crusty bread and some cheese, especially in winter.”

“And we hope that by incorporating our different flavours, and by being faithful to our ethos of always producing a really great product, we’re able to give our customers a consistently good product no matter what flavour they choose!” n

TASTING NOTES

n Heart of Lincolnshire: A delicious Mature cheddar in the shape of a heart encased in a pink wax, £4.50/200g. n Just Jane Vintage Cheddar: A tangy flavour and creamy texture from the dairy’s vintage cheddar makes this fantastic cheese, £4.50/200g. n Sunset Blue Cheese: A creamy blue veined cheese with a beautiful orange flesh naturally coloured with annetto, £3.50/100g. n Skegness Blue Cheese: Beautiful soft blue cheese made with local Lincolnshire milk. Said to be similar to a blue brie, £3.50/100g. n Lymn Bank Strongest Cheddar: Matured for two years this extra mature cheddar is smooth and full of flavour. Amazing as a snack with warm crusty bread just out of the oven and a glass of port, £3.00/145g. n Tomato & Basil Cheddar: With tomato and basil woven into this delicious mature cheddar, this cheese is something special, add to a platter with crusty bread and olives for an amazing starter or grate into hot pasta for a quick lunch, £3.00/145g. n Caramelised Red Onion Cheddar: One of Lymn Bank Farm’s most popular cheeses. Perfect for cheese on toast, £3.00/145g. Above products available to purchase at www.yummy.co.uk.

In the KITCHEN

The warming taste of nutmeg and just a hint of rum both feature in this feel-good cake perfect for winter. Enjoy it mid-morning with a cup of coffee!

FESTIVE SPICED LATTE CAKE

Preparation time: 25 minutes. Cooking time: 50 minutes. Serves: 10. Ingredients: 250g melted unsalted butter, 300g self-raising white flour, 1 tsp baking powder 250g light brown soft sugar, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, plus a pinch more, ¼ tsp salt 1 tbsp instant coffee powder, plus 1 tsp, 75ml whole milk, 275g low-fat fresh vanilla custard 3 medium free range eggs, beaten, 4 tbsp golden caster sugar, 2 tbsp dark rum, 200ml whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 180˚C, gas mark 4. Use a little of the butter to grease a 23cm springform tin, then line the base. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the light brown soft sugar, a pinch of nutmeg and the salt. Mix well with your hands to smooth any lumps in the sugar, then make a well in the middle. In a cup, mix 1 tbsp coffee with 1 tbsp hot water. Stir into the melted butter with the milk, 175g custard and the eggs; whisk into the dry ingredients until smooth. Pour into the tin and bake for 50 minutes, until risen, golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. While the cake bakes, mix 1 tsp coffee with 2 tbsp caster sugar, 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp rum to make a syrup; set aside. Place the cake, in its tin, on a wire rack to cool. After 30 minutes, poke lots of holes into the top using a cocktail stick and brush with the coffee syrup. Once cooled completely, remove from the tin and put on a plate. Make a frothy topping by whipping the cream with the remaining 2 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tbsp rum until very thick, then fold into the remaining 100g custard. Spoon and spread the topping onto the cake, then use a fi ne sieve or tea strainer to dust with the remaining ½ tsp nutmeg.