Long Swales

Paul & Chris Burgess, former teacher and former adviser for a local ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, retired in 2023.  Keen gardeners, growers and allotment keepers, they took the next step towards producing small amounts of milk from well-fed and well-cared-for animals by sourcing ten Lacuane-breed sheep (a breed famed for the milk used to make Roquefort cheese).  They obtained a field on their back lane (called Long Swales) and a little outhouse to milk the sheep in and make cheese.  The sheep graze the rich diverse herbal fields and grasses, surrounded by replanted tall hedges and a natural woodland perfect for small mammals, birds, hares and insects to co-inhabit.  The sheep are only milked once a day, making for a less-stressed animal and a better-quality milk.

Farming seasonally, they lamb very late and dry off the sheep at the end of summer – so this cheese is only available late May till early September.  With just ten sheep providing milk, only ten Long Swales cheeses are made each day, and, apart from Saturday sales from the back door on the lane, all of the cheeses are then sold to The Courtyard Dairy.

Made similarly to the French cheese Perail, made in the Roquefort region and common before the fame of Roquefort overtook its sales, and from where the sheep breed hails from, Long Swales cheese is a lactic (slow acidic set) recipe, ladled into little moulds to drain. It is then left for a week to form a natural wrinkly geotrichum-yeasty rind (the rind may then develop blue-spots, which are all edible).  As the rind breaks the cheese down over the next few weeks, the texture softens to become creamy and unctuous and the flavour becomes more intense and rich.

Barely five miles from their door is Fountains Abbey – which was said to be one of the originators of proper cheesemaking in Yorkshire in the 1130s, as the French monks and abbots brought their knowledge and technology with them when the abbey was founded.  Historically at the abbey (and throughout the Dales) cheese would have mainly been made from sheep’s milk  – so perhaps Chris and Paul’s smallholding is a continuance of that legacy.

This product will have two weeks’ shelf life from the date of delivery. Conveniently, at checkout you can choose a delivery date even well in the future if you would like your cheese delivering for a specific event.

Nutritional Data (typical values, per 100g):
Energy 1400/335kcal
Fat 30g
(of which saturates) 23g
Carbohydrates <2.7g
(of which sugars) <1.4g
Protein 20g
Salt 1.5g

Weight: 1 x 100g cheese.