The Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival 2017
This weekend saw the beginning of The Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival (23rd to 30th September 2017) a week-long celebration of local produce – and everything and anything cheese!
The growth of delicious cheese available across the Dales and the whole of Yorkshire is thanks in part to the Cistercian monks who brought their cheese-making skills over from Normandy when they established abbeys at Jervaulx, Bolton and Fountains back in the 11th century and started making firm, crumbly cheese across the Dales.
These days there are a myriad of Yorkshire cheeses such as Coverdale, Swaledale, Ribblesdale, Yorkshire Blue and Fine Fettle cheeses available to cheese lovers today.
And it was at Jervaulx Abbey and the Abbey Tearooms, set in the midst of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, and owned and run by the Burdon Family, that I went on Sunday, where Anna had organised a ‘Meet the Maker’ Event to champion locally produced food.
Fruit Cake and Cheese – a match made in heaven
The combination of Fruit Cake & Cheese is a Yorkshire institution and a match made in heaven. It was traditionally a favourite packed lunch for miner’s, as the cake and the cheese kept each other fresh.
To add to the fun of The Yorkshire Dales celebration of all things foodie, I thought I’d share some of my favourite Fruit Cake and Yorkshire Cheese pairings with you:
Cherry Orchard and Harrogate Blue Cheese
The sweet, almond notes of our most traditional Cherry Orchard fruit cake, work surprisingly well with the soft, luxuriously creamy, mellow blue-veined Harrogate Blue from Shepherd’s Purse based in Newsham, near Thirsk. Its delicious!
Ginger Tingle and Richard III Wensleydale Cheese
Now made by Andy Ridley in Richmond, Richard III Wensleydale Cheese is one of the only artisan-produced Wensleydale cheeses available.
It was named after the original cheese maker, Suzanne Stirke’s dairy – Fortmayne Dairy – based near Middleham, which was the childhood home of the future Richard III, its gentle, clean and light and lemony flavour are an excellent foil for the mouth tingling effect of the Ginger Tingle fruit cake.
Kit Calvert Wensleydale Cheese with Cinnamon Pippin
The traditional Kit Calvert Wensleydale cheese is a handcrafted buttery, creamy cheese, which tastes delicious paired with the spicy and nutty Cinnamon Pippin, steeped in tummy warming Cinnamon Apple Crumble liqueur. Handcrafted to an old-fashioned recipe this cheese celebrates the father of Wensleydale cheese ‘Kit Calvert’, who helped to save the Wensleydale Creamery from closure in 1935.
A soft cheese for Coco Bazaar
Danny and Carole Lockwood make Barncliffe Brie; a hand stirred, soft cheese with locally sourced milk, collected daily and taken to the dairy at Barncliffe Mill near Huddersfield. It has a rich golden centre with a creamy texture and unique flavour and is a perfect complement to the rich, perfumed & complex flavours in the Coco Bazaar Chocolate fruit cake.
Something smoky to complement Total Fruit Cake
The Swaledale Cheese Company’s moist Richmond Smoked Cheese, made from Cow’s Milk, has a creamy yellow colour and is gently smoked to create a mild nutty flavour – a perfect match for the super-fruity Total Fruit Cake with its ‘Full Monty’ tea & Sheffield Honey undertones.
Click here to find out more about the Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival 2017.