Sinodun Hill and Brightwell Ash are firm favourites here at Buchanans Cheesemonger. These two goats’ cheeses are made by Fraser Norton and Rachel Yarrow, and it was fascinating to talk to the cheesemakers about the challenges and triumphs of moving from their creamery in Oxfordshire to a new larger site in Carmarthenshire. Read on for more about Norton and Yarrow, and the wonderful cheeses they make.
Norton and Yarrow Cheese
Fraser Norton and Rachel Yarrow have been making cheese since 2014 when they returned from a holiday having hatched a plan to leave their jobs and become cheesemakers. Despite knowing very little about cheese or goats at the time, the couple have gone on to create two excellent award-winning cheeses.
Sinodun Hill has a delicate, yoghurty flavour, complemented by a fruitier, goaty character from the rind. Its rind is wrinkly with a golden ivory colour, often accompanied by the odd spot of white or blue moulds that occur seasonally.
Brightwell Ash was their second cheese and has a beautiful, wrinkled grey and blue rind that gives way to a smooth, creamy breakdown and bright white fudgy core. It has a clean flavour of citrus and hazelnut.
After almost ten years at a tiny creamery in Oxfordshire, they moved to their own larger farm in Carmarthenshire earlier this year. Pencrug is the farm where Rachel’s parents lived and worked in the 1970s, so it seems fitting that this is where their cheesemaking journey continues.
The move was a mammoth project, rife with potential risk considering the influence the production environment has on the cheese. We spoke to Fraser and Rachel about their experience:
‘It’s hard to describe the scale of moving a business like ours – it’s a bit like moving house but times it by a thousand, or maybe even a million, in terms of the complexity involved! As well as our family and furniture, we moved 241 goats, two specially converted cheese-making shipping containers, a telehandler, 50 tonnes of straw, and five Luton van loads of farm equipment. We had to build and install a milking parlour from scratch and go through all the processes of gaining legal approval to operate as a farm and business again in the new area.
It’s great to be back in the routine and getting to know the new farm and surrounding land. It’s such a beautiful place and it’s a dream come true to have so much more land to graze the goats on. It certainly hasn’t been easy but we’re very excited about the future here. And we’re taking the first steps to start developing a new cheese recipe, so watch this space!’
We’re thrilled at the prospect of a new cheese from Norton and Yarrow, and look forward to tasting it in due course. In the meantime, we’re very happy to report that Sinodun Hill and Brightwell Ash are as plentiful and delicious as ever.