Name:
Botton Village (North Yorkshire)
Produce:
Raw Organic Cheese
Season:
All Year
Botton Village is in Denby Dale in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. It is part of the Camphill Village Trust and is a community of adults with learning disabilities and other special needs. The Village has its own farms and the milk is used in their organic cheese making.
Botton village is a very friendly, close knit community located near Whitby, in North Yorkshire. Here you can find Botton Creamery, the producers of high quality, organic cheese. Far from your average creamery, it is proud to be a part of the Camphill Village Trust- a leading UK charity and not-for-profit organisation supporting adults with learning disabilities. The farm hosts residents with learning disabilities onsite, who help out in all aspects of life: from milking cows to producing and selling goods in Botton Village Café. Everyone knows everyone and everyone gets involved where they can. Lead cheesemaker, Peter started his career in retail, transitioning into childcare and then a nine to five before the opportunity to become a cheesemaker surfaced. Years later he is still passionate about making beautiful cheese and working with amazing people.
A lot of pride goes into making four different types of cheese. The cows are very well looked after, grazing outside across plenty of land over a seven month period of the year. Jake Waller, Dairy Lead in the village puts the special flavour of the milk down to what the cows are grazing. Legumes, clover and a variety of different herbs and weeds gives the milk and raw cheese an amazing flavour running throughout it due to the diversity in diet.
Short horn dairy cows, nicknamed the ‘Durham cow,’ are local to the area and are the predominant breed on the farm. They are able to make the most of low quality forage in a way that traditional big black and white cows struggle with. They’re very efficient, healthy, low maintenance cows that don’t ask for much. They encompass the organic ethos of harnessing the environment around them to get the work done.
30 cows produce organic milk daily for a collection of four cheeses: Dale End Cheddar, Moorland Tomme, Botton Gouda and the award winning Summerfields; the primary focus cheese in the summer months. During the summer, the herdsmen deliver around 1000 litres of milk three times a week directly to the cheese vat. The curds are collected and put into a mould before going through several more stages of processing before finally heading to the maturing room. Summerfields is matured for a year, with a lot of washing and turning in that time to get it to the high standard Botton Creamery is aiming for.