Spring cheese

Variability is one of the most intriguing things about farm cheeses. Cheesemaking, like winemaking, is a fermentation process, and the cheesemaker never has complete control of the fermentation. Unlike wine, however, which has a vintage once a year, cheese is made daily so, in effect, there is a ‘vintage’ every day.

A lot has been written about the quality of cheese made on the first spring flush of grass. This may be true of cheeses made from the milk of animals grazing on alpine pastures, but in most places (Britain and Ireland included) The spring flush of grass often means thin milk with low proteins and fats, and results in poor cheese. Certainly in the first week the animals actually go out to grass their metabolism upset, and cheese made from their milk can be very uncertain.