Evenlode

David Jowett studied cheese making with Andy (of The Courtyard Dairy) and went on to work for some of the best cheese-makers in the USA and the UK (Gorse Hill Abbey, Berkswell, Jasper Hill, Paxton and Whitfield…).

In early March 2015 he set up in partnership with the Haine family (fifth-generation owners of King Stone Farm in the North Cotswolds) to create a brand new cheese.
The farm contains the ‘King Stone’ – one of the ancient Rollright Stones – a site of special religious and spiritual significance for pagans.

After making cheese there for several years, farming changes and his objective to make more and better quality cheese, saw David move his dairy in 2019 up the road to Chedworth in neighbouring Gloucestershire.  Chedworth’s Manor Farm has in recent years returned to more traditional farming techniques including planting (and feeding cows) on the farm’s diverse and plentiful clover and herbal leys (a dozen native grass species!) and using traditional British breeds of cows (such as the Dairy Shorthorn).

Rollright cheese is their flagship cheese with an incredible softness and rich butteryness akin to Reblochon.  In 2018 David started working on his second cheese: Evenlode, but like musical artists with their difficult second album – this proved to be a tricky cheese to master and trials were soon shelved.  When the COVID pandemic hit, the soft oozy texture of Rollright proved challenging, as its limited shelf life was a problem when the artisan cheese market was so volatile.  David went back to the drawing board to develop Evenlode as a slightly more stable cheese in which he could preserve milk during the pandemic.  Initially it had a naturally-diverse mould rind, but the store in which he kept it was humid and ‘close’ so it started to develop the sticky-orange rind you see on it today.  Deciding to take the cheese down this route, David now washes it on the outside more aggressively and more frequently than his other cheeses to encourage this rind to develop.  This gives it that pungent aroma and the savoury, meaty flavours you associate with the great ‘washed-rind’ cheeses of France.

What weight to buy?
100g in total of cheese per person for consumption after a meal.  For comparison, 250g is similar in size to standard pack of butter.

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.

Ingredients: Milk, salt, cheese cultures and rennet.