Cloth on, cloth off, and clean.

Summer’s here.  And that can only mean one thing; Cheese Shows.  They come in all shapes and sizes, they range from local to national, and they can be tagged onto other events such as agricultural shows or they can stand alone as events all on their own.   The evidence is all over the place that cheese really is big business.

You’ll always find a buzz around the farm when competition time rolls around; in fact, you’ll find the same buzz around most cheese producers during show season when it’s time to put your best produce out there for the world to see (and judge, gulp).  We at Keen’s enter a number of shows, and if you sneak a peek at our awards page you’ll see we don’t do too badly.  Fingers crossed 2013 brings us a bounty of trophies, awards, recognitions and ribbons to follow suit.

It’s a labour of love

Of course, we can’t molly coddle our cheese enough throughout the year but now is the time a couple of our lucky samples are taken off the shelf and dressed to impress….. Literally!  Traditionally truckles entered into show have been ‘dressed’ and a lot of the main shows still request that competition entries are still dressed for show;  But how do you dress a cheese I hear you cry.

Firstly, the cloth that the truckle has been maturing inside is carefully peeled away exposing its rind.  This is then painstakingly cleaned using a sharp blade to bring out its best side.  Once it is all sparkly clean a plastic coat is applied evenly all over to prevent the cheese from drying out and finally a white cotton band is carefully placed around the truckle to complete its pampering preparation.

The perfect primer for the perfect cheese

The white cotton bands were actually once used to keep the cheese in shape, but cheese making has now advanced so

it isn’t essential anymore, however it’s still nice to keep with traditions and as a side it also helps to disguise any blemishes on the cheese surface…. Even Miss World wears foundation you know!Anyway, that’s how we prepare the chosen truckles.  In part 2 we’ll impart some of the knowledge we have gained over the years about showing cheese, and speak to a guy who’s been judging at cheese shows for over 30 years who will give you some sound advice about entering your first show.

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Not everyone has the time to savour every last mouthful of every meal consumed during the course of a week.  Some people say that that’s life, it’s fast and it’s furious, you snooze you lose, lunch is for wimps.  But we at Keen’s strongly disagree.  Everybody has the right to just slow things right down sometimes and enjoy the small stuff in life.  And in our world, that small thing is food, and that is why we work in partnership with Slow Food.

Slow Food is the international movement for the defence of and the right to pleasure.  Even if you don’t absorb that entire sentence just focus on one word…. pleasure.  Food really should be a pleasure.  Slow Food are a global, grass roots, non-profit organisation who fight hard to counter the rise of fast (and can we add bland) food, it is their mission to reignite the passion consumers once had for their food and to protect local food traditions and educate about how food choices affect the environment.

That is why we, and two of our fellow cheese makers (Montgomery’s and Westombe), formed one of the first International Presidia projects; Artisan Somerset Cheddar.  Between us it is our aim to raise consciousness about the craftsmanship behind our artisan food and to teach our consumers how to recognise quality.  We do this through tastings, promotions and education.

If you have an event you’d like us to attend that’s in keeping with the Slow Food philosophy do let us know about it and we’ll see what we can do to help your cause.

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There were of course a lot of people saying that the best and most simple match would be a sweet, crispy apple.  If you haven’t tried this I urge

A match made in heaven

you to go out to your local Deli or Farm Shop, buy the sweetest apple they have on offer along with a wedge of Keen’s cheese, find a nice quiet spot and savour  the moment.  It will be one you will remember.

I also read somewhere (and apologies I can not find the link) that Sake is a great pairing with our cheddar.  Now that I have to try.

But here are a few of my other favourites along with links to the experts who kindly donated their taste buds to the cause.

Port – Yes, you read that correctly, Port.  Apparently Port becomes increasingly fruity when eaten with a good strong cheddar.  I’d like to thank Diana Pittet over at http://cheddarbound.blogspot.co.uk  for giving me an excuse to dust off the old Port bottle when it’s not even Christmas.

Rioja – The guys over at www.thekitchn.com described a good cloth bound cheddar with a strong red as ‘Tried and True, like two friends getting married and each elevating the other’ aahhh.

Cabernet, Chianti, IPA’s & Stouts – I hope not all at the same time www.tasteofcheese.ca!!!

Bengali Tiger – I know that this falls into the IPA category mentioned above but I had to love this exact match because within the article we were described as ‘funky’, quotes like that just can not be ignored, here’s the link if you want to know more about pairing beers and cheese http://cheddarbound.blogspot.co.uk/2010_03_01_archive.html.

So there you have it, Keen’s plus some very exciting + 1′s.

Do you have a preference?  Anything you’ve tried that I’ve not mentioned here?  Feel free to let us know in the comments below.

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Walkers are using a Somerset cheese in their Cheese & Onion crisps to help with the authenticity of their flavours.  No, our cheese isn’t going to the packets, but we were able to help their cause in raising awareness of how great Somerset Cheese is.

A representative contacted us a short while ago looking to purchase a couple of truckles they could photograph and use as visuals within the campaign (because let’s face it our cheese is a good looking cheese).   They then also passed the truckles to their modellers to reproduce and create an entire cheese store, finally they needed some shelving which we delivered to Bristol.  During conversations about how we could help we did offer our facilities as a location for them to film however they were too far down the line with plans.

So, just in case you’ve missed it I’ve included the video below.  Happy viewing, and keep your eyes open for the cheese store at 0.17 and the closing shot 1.01.

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Follow us on Facebook

We’ll be updating our website regularly to keep you informed of everything that’s happening around the farm and engaging in general chit chat on Twitter and Facebook, some of the chat will be about cheese, sometimes we might throw in the odd competition, and sometimes there’ll just be good old fashioned fun and trivia.  And, because we know some of you are visual types we’ll be updating our Pinterest page regularly with some of the delicious foods people around the world make up using our fabulous cheese as an ingredient.  So do like us and follow us and hopefully we’ll get to know all about you along the way.

And of course, any feedback is always welcome so feel free to leave your mark before you leave.

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