Supplier of the month: Lyburn Cheese
Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers
May’s supplier of the month is the multi-award-winning cheese producer from Hampshire and a fantastic family-run business that we take great pleasure in championing - Lyburn Cheese!
A brief history:
The New Forest has no great history of cheese-making, the milk from Hampshire has always travelled east to be sold as bottled milk. Of course, this was until Lyburn Cheese came about!
In 1952, the Smales family moved to a 50-acre farm near West Tytherley in Hampshire with three Gurnsey cows. The family has milked cows twice a day, every day for three generations - spanning more than 60 years! In 1969 they took on Lyburn Farm, a plot with about 270 acres and 200 cows.
The Cows:
In short, the cows are happy! They have access to food 24 hours a day, roam lush fields during the summer, and live in cosy, warm straw beds (with rubber mattresses!) in the winter. They are cared for and loved on Lyburn Farm, and many have been home-bred, which means there is much less risk of diseases like TB.
The Cheese:
Lyburn make their cheese on the farm using their own pasteurised cows' milk and a vegetarian rennet! All their cheese is handmade and is very much a team effort to produce. From Phil milking the cows at 6 am, producing clean wholesome, good quality milk to James turning this into curds the same day. The rest of the team then looks after the maturation of the cheese, which lasts from 10 weeks to 18 months before being packed and distributed to us. Find out more.
We sell a variety of cheeses from Lyburn, but this month, we have made the 'Lyburn Old Winchester' our cheese of the month! This means there will be lots of samples available on our deli counters for you to enjoy, as well as 10% off!
The offer: 10% off Lyburn Old Winchester until the end of May!
About Old Winchester: With more stars than many UK star constellations, Lyburn Old Winchester is a very well-awarded cheese indeed! It is an older version of their Winchester cheese and therefore a much dryer, harder, and crystalline cheese, more reminiscent of an Old Gouda with a distinctive, nutty flavour. It is a fantastic replacement for an Italian hard cheese if you have some vegetarians around your dinner table because of its vegetarian rennet.