After a career in architecture and design, Nick is enjoying an early retirement, primarily because it affords him time to make a wide variety of fabulous cheeses.
Nick’s Story
My wife and I live in a little village called Tingewick, which is near Buckingham, Buckinghamshire – about 65 miles northeast of London and 20 miles east of Oxford.
We moved to our very old house in 2005 and, whilst Martha (now 25) and Felix (30 later this year) have moved away as kids are supposed to, we are left to stop bits falling off the cottage and to make sure it’s there, dry and warm, when they want to come home occasionally!
The house is shared by two dogs, three chickens and a cat and, depending on the day of the week, that is not necessarily the pecking order!
We have travelled quite a lot over the years and enjoyed trips to India and Japan in recent years. Sara is a textile teacher at a local girls school so we have visited Jaipur to experience hand blocking textile studios around the city and spent a week working in an indigo studio on the outskirts of Kyoto.
Once the world has healed again after the pandemic, we look forward to travelling again and learning more about this amazing world.
How I got started making cheese:
I grew up going to markets with the family, (in the 1970’s) just to do the weekly shopping. My mother went on Tuesdays while we were at school and my dad was at work and we would all go on Saturdays – along with everybody else in the area it seemed!
The cheese stall (invariably there would only be one cheese stall in those days) seemed exotic amongst the butchers, fabric, fish, ironmongery and fruit and vegetable stalls.
There would be big blocks of cheddar and Red Cheshire, flat wheels of brie, exotic cheese with holes in from Switzerland and, as I was growing up in that part of the world, my favourite, Wensleydale straight from the dairy!
Growing up, I loved cheese – from basic student grilled cheese on toast (shushed/spruced up depending who you wanted to impress that week) to comforting homely dishes to satisfy the family on cold winter evenings! I always looked for interesting cheeses on my travels, whether that was here at home in the UK or travel overseas.
I had always joked with friends, too, that if I wasn’t able to do my day job, I would open a cheese shop! So a couple of years ago, I went on a day’s cheesemaking course at the beautiful town of Bakewell in the Peak District in Derbyshire, England, a couple of hundred miles from my front door.
The course was organized by Julie at Hartington’s of Bakewell and run by Phil Heler. Phil works for the family business – Joseph Heler, the biggest craft cheese producer in the UK and one of the last commercial producers of Cheshire cheese.
I was hooked and have been making cheese ever since. Friends and family continue to encourage me so perhaps some of these cheeses turn out ok.
I am lucky that 2 miles away from my front door is a farm that has a Jersey herd. The family sells raw Jersey milk (as well as pasteurized and semi-skimmed milk, double cream (I think you guys call that heavy cream) and delicious ice cream flavours made from the Jersey milk). The farm, BarnOwl Jerseys has been very supportive and it is a fabulous resource. Their milk is a great product to work with.
I mainly make batches based on 8L (2 gal) of milk, but recently have bought equipment to allow me to work with up to 24L (6.3 gal). Whatever recipe you use it seems, whatever quantity you work with, the majority of cheese takes a day to get into the mold or to stand up all by itself.
Since the Covid pandemic hit with a vengeance at the beginning of last year, I have had more time at home and the production and variety of my cheeses has increased as a result.
Even though I have had my fair share of failures (its just part of learning, right? and boy am I still learning), I might yet fill that cheese shop!
Nick’s Cheese:
I started with some basic feta recipes which worked really well with the raw Jersey milk and quickly moved on to cheddar!
I used the New England Cheesemaking cheddar recipe as my guide and made cheddar over and over and over again, trying to be consistent with everything I did, perhaps varying the starter from time to time once I had gotten the method cracked.
The trick for me was to try and keep the cheese for as long as I possibly could and not start eating it after three months when it was just ready! I have now gotten to the stage where I have waxed cheeses that are over a year old and I am tempted to try them but will hold out for as long as I possibly can!
I thought that if I made cheddar for 10,000 hours, I might have mastered it. I think I now know that this isn’t the case. There are so many variables that I am now excited about each cheese and how it might turn out, no matter how ‘consistent’ I think I might have been.
I moved on to Wensleydale after the cheddar. I have always loved Wensleydale (might have mentioned that!) and had tasted some fabulous examples using raw milk and made on the farm, that were supplied by Andy Swinscoe at the Courtyard Dairy.
He had encouraged local farms to make an old recipe from a booklet issued by the Government back in 1930s. Each cheese was so different though the recipe was the same in each case – as clear a case of ’terroir’ making a difference as you will come across.
So, again using the New England Wensleydale recipe, I tackled this cheese. Once I had made it a couple of times and understood the methodology, I tried to make it again using the 1930’s Government booklet – delicious results from both recipes!
I have tried out Stilton, thought I should have a go, but results haven’t been good yet!
Camembert works really well with the Jersey milk and I am making this now on a regular basis – very popular with friends and family. They don’t know it yet but the local vineyard will soon be receiving one as a gift as I think it would pair very nicely with their light wines. Perhaps I can sell a few to them over the summer!
Red Cheshire, Lancashire, more Cheddar (all waxed), some Caerphilly (the rind is starting to develop nicely) and some basic Tomme cheeses that I will rub with a smoked paprika and olive oil mix are what I am having a go at just now.
I am finding the New England Cheesemaking website (cheesemaking.com) extremely helpful in my development as a cheesemaker. Advice from suppliers and manufacturers of equipment and starters here in the UK has also been invaluable. Gianaclis Caldwell’s Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking (now well thumbed) is never far away from me during production either!
Kathy Denison says
hello, we’re Anglophiles living in Texas and have been making raw milk cheeses for 10 years, including Cheddars but will be trying your recipe now. Can you tell me where to buy a copy of Bulletin 34 please? Have checked online here in the US but cannot find it. Thanks very much.
Nick says
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for your email.
As you might imagine, the booklet has been out of print for a good many years. I was fortunate to come across a copy on the website of a charity organisation.
Good luck in your search!
Best
Nick
Thank you for sharing your blog Nick.
What a beautiful garden.
I’ve had the pleasure of tasting some of you cheese which I have to say was absolutely delicious..
I Wish you well on your new venture enjoy the journey and believe in yourself.
Thank you for this wonderful story. Could it be possible to post the recipe from the book? Makes me want to make cheddar over and over.
Nick,
If you want to send me a copy of the recipe page, I would be happy to post it in a blog article.
Hi Jeff
Thanks for the response, I’ll send the page to Jeri as suggested – I look forward to hearing how it goes!
Nick
Nick sent to me and I am working on typing it out. I expect to post it soon. Thanks, Nick and thanks to Jeff for suggesting this.
Thank you very much for sharing this 1934 recipe Nick, and also for typing it out Jeri! I found it very interesting, though more complicated than Jim’s good recipe. One question: this 1934 recipe seems to call for dipping the cheese in 140F water for 30 seconds once between pressing on the second day; and also bandaging instead of waxing. Does dipping in hot water prevent grey-mold from developing when you bandage the cheese?? What is the aim of this quick hot water bath? For aging the cheese bandaged, the recipe says/warns nothing of possible appearance of mold on the cheese — is it because the cheese is essentially covered/sealed with lard? What would the rind look like if we follow this recipe strictly?? Thank you.
Also, Thank you Jeff for requesting this recipe!
What a wonderful, wonderful story!
Thanks for writing it, and sharing your adventure, Nick!
Hi Rebecca, thanks for the support!
Nick
Nick, first off thank you for sharing your journey with our greater cheese making family. Your garden is delightful, the cosmos and gone by poppies are beautiful and is that crocosmia I see in the background?, it is one of my all time favorites. I think you underestimate yourself and most of your cheeses are turning out beautifully for your friends and family. It is great to see such progress in the short time you have been making your cheeses. I wish you all the best, and most of all enjoy what you are doing, it is a fantastic tradition.
Stay safe and stay Creative, In Peace, Ricki
Hi Ricki,
Yes, the crocosmia really seem to like our garden!
I am enjoying making cheeses (can you tell!), love the variation possible with so few ingredients…always something to learn too.
Great to hear from you.
Nick
Nick, you inspire me to expand my cheese repertoire. Your home is enticing in it’s heritage and history! Beautiful pictures of your home and garden!
And how many different cheddars have your made so far? I’ve made two, straight from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company recipes. My second one is delectable, to quote my family! That cheese is legitimate, says my daughter!
Congratulations on your retirement. Many happy cheeses are coming, I bet! Be well!
HI Charles,
Thanks for the comments….love your daughter’s critique of your cheese!
As well as learning the craft, I am trying to find cheeses which suit this fabulous resource of raw Jersey milk that I am lucky enough to enjoy just down the road….having fun along the way!