Appleby's Cheshire Forever
Our story starts with a determined family. All cheesemaking stories must start with a strong minded someone because getting into the cheese business requires a stout heart and a steely will. The Appleby family has embodied these qualities for generations. Mothers taught daughters how to make Cheshire - initially to help feed the family, and by the 1950s, as a source of income.
Currently, Paul and Sarah run Hawkstone Abbey Farm where they produce Appleby’s Cheshire using only the milk from their own herd of cows, which makes it a “farmstead cheese”. They learned from Paul’s parents and his grandparents, Lance and Lucy. Lance and Lucy started selling their clothbound, raw milk, farmstead Cheshire in 1952 at a time when almost all Cheshire production had moved into factories.
There was a time, a long time actually – Cheshire is the oldest named English cheese after all – when women made Cheshire on farms across England. But the World Wars came and the men went, leaving women at home with all the farm chores. Many stopped making cheese because they simply didn’t have time, but there was dire need for food on the front and at home as supplies became scarce. Cheshire-making moved into factories for rapid production, quickly increasing the tonnage while at the same time sapping the cheese of its flavor.
Although the move to mass production continued and farms and creameries around the Applebys were sold to large corporations, Lance and Lucy were not deterred. They kept making the same Cheshire with milk from their own herd as always, refusing to bend to the pressure to sell their land or even pasteurize their milk. They knew that pasteurization would deaden some of the flavor that made the Cheshire their own.
In the 1980s, when Lucy and Lance’s children ran the farm, they came under pressure to change their cheese again. Supermarkets insisted they wax the outside of the Cheshire, just like the mass-produced version. As before, the Applebys refused and simply looked for new customers who appreciated that they wanted to make cheese the traditional way. They are now the only creamery left making a farmstead, raw milk, clothbound Cheshire. Their dogged determination means that we can have a Cheshire with personality, one that hues closely to the cheese made for thousands of years across England. As Sarah and Paul write, “in our traditional dairy we make ‘edible heritage,’” and this heritage tastes great! We get to experience that grassy, earthy, tangy flavor and the very satisfying flakey texture. Have it with a classic dark, malty English ale and toast to the Applebys for saving classic Cheshire!
For the love of cheese and determination,
Kiri
P.S. I have whiskey on the brain. It is my alcohol of choice as the temperature drops because it is cozy and warming, AND it goes well with cheese! Thus, I wanted to reacquaint myself with Nearest (sometimes spelled Nearis) Green, a slave who is just getting his due as the person who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.
