7.45am

The milking parlour is a hive of activity as it comes to the end of the milking session. Ten cows
are being milked at any one time and it is impeccably clean. Each milking session can
take up to two and a half hours. A couple of locals stop by, drop a few coins into a jar and help
themselves to milk and yoghurt from a large fridge.

8.15am

David, our farmer, heads over to check the pregnant members of his herd, who are not being milked
at the moment. There are two periods of calving each year; two weeks after they have given birth the
cows will return to the herd. Afterwards he drives down to the main farm, where he will check on the
members of the herd in the fields and barns in the lower pastures. A large shed split into enclosed
and open-air sections is home to the youngest members of the herd, while the slightly older calves
are in a field at the opposite sides of the yard.

10am

David and his wife get ready to make today's batch of yoghurt. Their first job is to stir the liquid until
it is smooth and free of lumps. Having checked that the acidity of the yoghurt is right, David dips
a large metal bucket into the first vat, filling it with thick, creamy yoghurt which he then pours into
the funnel of a gleaming potting machine. As each pot is filled, David's wife proudly sticks on the
labels by hand.

An afternoon with a Jersey cheesemaker

1.30pm

Having finished the morning’s cheese making and grabbed a bite to eat, Richard, our farmer, heads
up to the top field where a herd of forty Jersey cows are grazing. After a brief chat with his herd he
follows them back down the muddy track to their covered accommodation. At this farm, they work on the principal that the cows know what’s best: if they want to come in, they simply walk back to their sheds.

2pm

The cows troop on ahead to the main barn while Richard stops off to check all is well at the ‘nursery’.
A couple of his most maternal cows are watching over six young calves, four of whom they have
fostered as their own. The next stop is to check in on the herd’s newest recruit, a two week old calf.
She has spent the first few days of her life in a special individual cot, and will be hand fed until a
suitable foster mum can be found.

4pm

The herdsman arrives to set up the milking parlour for the second session of the day. Richard
loads up his van with the cheese that’s ready to be sold and heads off up the long drive towards
the village. The soft ‘Camembert’ style cheese made here starts with rich, warm Jersey milk
being poured into a vat with harmless bacteria and a mould. After letting the flavours develop,
a vegetarian rennet is added which coagulates the proteins in the milk to give curds and whey.

The curds are cut into cubes, ladled into moulds then left to drain for the rest of the day. In the
evening, the cheeses are turned and left out until the morning when they are dunked in brine
and left to dry. They are then stored for ten days, after which some are smoked, some rolled
in peppercorns and some left plain. The cheeses are then wrapped and stored for a further
week before sale.