Talks

Sarah Appleby - 'Farm Cheese & Butter'

Where:

Castle Garden Stage - Castle Gardens

When:

13th September 2024
3:30 pm to 4:15 pm

Farm Cheese & Butter with Sarah Appleby

It’s all about the heritage, provenance and legacy for Sarah Appleby, her husband Paul and their five children, and that’s the reason why Appleby’s Cheshire has been made since 1952 by the same family, in the same time honoured way… it’s exceptional, tasting buttery-rich, with a delicate crumble and a juicy-acidity.
The current custodians of this classic cheese, Sarah and Paul Appleby, have excelled in not only keeping traditional farm-made Cheshire alive but also, under their care, their meticulous attention to detail and small tweaks to their farming practices and cheese-making have helped further to improve it.

This is the last great Cheshire being made with unpasteurised milk, and traditionally cloth-bound.  It is made on the salt plains of the Cheshire marshes; the provenance and flora is said to influence a true Cheshire cheese.  The story of this cheese dates back thousands of years and it was once so highly regarded as the finest cheese in England, it coined a phrase – ‘as good as Cheshire’.  Cheshire cheese once was made by every farm in Cheshire and was more popular than Cheddar.  Yet sadly it has lost its prime position and now Appleby’s (at Hawkstone Abbey Farm in Shropshire) is one of the sole remaining farm producers.

Cheese-making at Hawkstone Abbey Farm began in 1952 when Lucy Appleby (who studied cheese-making at the local Reaseheath College) returned to the family farm to re-start Cheshire cheese making there using milk from their own cows. Her know-how has been passed down to her son, Edward, and then her grandson, Paul, who now offers this crumbly, tangy, lemony-fresh cheese.

Appleby’s Cheshire is still made using the unpasteurised milk from Paul Appleby’s herd of prime Friesian cattle.  In recent years Paul and Sarah have shifted the focus of their farming and undergone a conversion towards a more regenerative and sustainable way of farming, with cows out at pasture capturing the different seasons.

applebysdairy.com