West Country Delights

Cheese of the Week - Dorset Blue Vinny

This is a real beauty, a very traditional Dorset cheese that used to be made all over the County when I was a young man.  I lived just over the border in Devon and had many friends in Dorset who made Blue Vinny, it was a firm, tangy blue with a slightly springy texture and I fell in love with it.  Sometime in the mid 1960s there was a scare about cheeses made with unpasteurised milk and its use was banned.  Blue Vinny is made with raw milk and the few farmers who continued manufacture went 'underground' and their cheese was sold in a plain wrapper from under the counter!  Many years later it was discovered that the problem that has arisen with unpasteurised cheese was not due to the raw product, but to the way in which the cheese had been kept and handled, so the ban on making cheese from raw milk was lifted.  Now there is an increasing number of unpasteurised cheeses on the market and this use of the raw milk gives a greated complexity and deeper flavour to the cheese.

Dorset Blue Vinny

Sadly there is now only one farmer remaining making traditional Blue Vinny in Dorset, Mike Davis from Woodbridge Farm near Sturminster Newton.  He resurrected this ancient cheese back in 1980 and uses his own unpasteurised Friesian milk which he firstly skims and then adds a small amount of skimmed milk powder to increase the richness of the milk to make it a slightly more pliable cheese with more predictable blue veining.  But it is a low fat cheese, having a fat content of about 30% which makes it ideal for those on a limited fat intake diet.  Mike Davis uses vegetarian rennet to separate the curds from the whey and matures his cheeses for up to 5 months before relasing them.  This is the real McCoy, not to be confused with the mass produced product made by one of the Stilton manufacturers in the Midlands.  Dorset Blue Vinny is now protected by its' own PDO (Protected Designation of Origin).


Christmas Events

We are having late opening on the two Thursdays leading up to Christmas, along with many other shops in Crediton.  Penny will be laying on a Christmas menu as well as other offerings, and of course you can buy your Christmas cheese and beat the daytime rush. 

Penny on our stand at South Molton Christmas Fatstock Show

Penny and I have been attending numerous Sunday events, Christmas fairs and markets during the past few weeks - working seven-day weeks.  Yesterday (11 Dec) we went to South Molton where they were holding their Christmas Fatstock Market, a super event with a wonderful atmosphere that attracts huge crowds wanting to pick up a meaty bargain for Christmas, a lamb, turkey, goose or chicken, at the auction that follows the judging.  As well as helping many people with their cheese selection for the forthcoming festivities, we also came away with a lamb and a goose for our Christmas.

Next Sunday (18 Dec) we are standing at the fantastically popular Christmas Market at Hartland, our last pre-Christmas event.  This is the only market that Penny and I now attend on a regular basis (before we had the shop and café in Crediton we used to stand at Farmers' Markets all over the place) from April through to October.  Although Hartland is quite a small and isolated community it has one of the best and most vibrant Farmers' Markets in Devon and attracts people from far and wide.  During the Summer months the customer base is swollen by holiday makersm but all year it is well supported by people from as far as Braunton and Barnstaple, Torrington and as far away as Camelford across the border in darkest Cornwall.  If you can make it, do come and see us there, the market runs from 10 am until 1 pm - and you can also have breakfast at the renowned Farmers' Café.

Christmas Closing Times

Christmas Day .............. Closed
Boxing Day (Monday) .. Closed
Tuesday ....................... Closed
Wednesday ................. Closed
Thursday ..................... Open
Friday .......................... Open
Saturday ..................... Open

New Year's Monday ... Closed
Tuesday ...................... Closed
Wednesday ................ Closed
Thursday .................... Back to normal opening times