Cheesemaking in Devon

For the last three weeks I have been WWOOFing in North Devon at a farm that Jeni WWOOFed on three years ago. The reason that Jeni came here and one of the reasons that I did too, is because they milk sheep and make ewes' milk cheese. One of the breeds of sheep that they use is my beloved Zwartbles. For all of you who have not met my erstwhile sheep they are Dutch, black with a white blaze, white feet and a white tip to the tail, tall and very elegant looking and very milky - they are to sheep what Holsteins are to cows: the ultimate dairy animal.

Over the last few years, Lawrence has also used a Friesland ram (another Dutch milk breed but it is white) so apart from the Zwartbles ram there are no pure-bred animals left in the flock, but they still produce a lot of milk. This year he is also introducing a British Milk Sheep ram to the flock (this looks very similar to the Friesland), so it will be interesting to see what that produces.

Lawrence and Karen split their jobs in quite a traditional manner - Lawrence does most of the work with the stock and Karen produces the cheese and markets it at various Farmers' Markets in the area, so I have tried to divide my time between the two areas, although there has not been much to do on a daily basis with the animals.

The day after I arrived I helped to milk the sheep which is very similar to milking cows in that the sheep all come into a milking parlour where they are given some pellets to keep them happily occupied while we clean their teats and afix the clusters. Then, when they are milked they are allowed to leave and the next bunch file in. There is one big advantage to milking sheep that I can see at first glance - you do not get swished in the face with a dung-covered tail as you put on the clusters! Unfortunately for me, this was the last milking of the year as the rams were due to go out at the beginning of November so the ewes were 'dried off'. I was very pleased that I got to see it done, though.

Wednesdays are Cheese Making Days, and Karen kindly allowed me to help her in the dairy ( a concession not offered to all WWOOFers, apparently). The whole day is taken up with the cheese making taking an average of eight hours from when the milk is put in the vat to finishing putting it in the moulds. Also, you have to be scrupulously clean so this means completely clean clothes, no touching the dogs or cats, and putting on a white coat, disposable apron and hair net in the dairy. First of all the milk is heated and stirred until it reaches a set temperature and then starter culture is added. After a short while (in which we usually made it back to the house for a cup of tea) the rennet is added and within a short space of time the curds appear. the whole mass is then cut with curd knives into small cubes which gradually sink into the whey. The whey is then drained off and the resulting mass cut into wedges and heaped up to drain for a bit longer. (At this point, we would go in for a quick lunch). The solid curds are then broken up into small pieces by hand before being pressed into cheesecloth-lined moulds and weights applied. This, however, is not the end of the process as the cheeses have to be turned for several days and each time they have to be removed from the moulds, unwrapped, turned over, rewrapped with clean cloths and put back in the moulds until they are ready to go into the cheese room for storage where they still need to be turned every week. I really enjoyed being involved in this task and we had some wonderful wide-ranging conversations as we worked.

On the animal side of things, I have helped to move the Devon Red cattle to their winter fields across the lane from the farm, and I also helped to sort out the lambs from the flock and take them to the same fields as the grass is quite lush and will easily sustain them all for a while. We then divided up the ewes into four groups for the various rams (they also have a flock of Shetland sheep) and put them in seperate fields. All of this work has been made much easier because Lawrence has three border collies, two of whom are pretty good sheep dogs (the third is a bit too keen at the moment and tends to cause a degree of chaos if not watched closely!) I have also been helping to look after a couple of poorly lambs by cutting ivy for them. They are both now doing much better and may be fit to rejoin their mates in a week or so.

I have also been included in Lawrence's and Karen's lives in other ways too, as they have taken me to the open mic nights at their local pub in Lee on Friday evenings and also to a folk concert in the village hall which was very good. Karen and I also went to the monthly Stitch 'n' Bitch evening in the pub too, where I started knitting squares again (not sure my knitting capabilities are up to much more, especially if I'm chatting at the same time!). On the first Sunday that I was here I helped Karen at the North Devon Foodfest in the Barnstaple Pannier Market (so called because the goods for the market used to be brought in from the farms in panniers on horseback) and then again at her regular Friday Farmers' Market in the same venue. She not only sells cheese but also organic knitting wool and organic sheepskins all from their own animals.

I have loved my time here and feel quite reluctant to leave this Victorian farmhouse and its various occupants - perhaps three weeks is too long to stay as I start to feel as if I belong, and that would never do! Ah well - onward and upward - or in this case - southward as I continue my journey by going to Launceston in Cornwall for the next two weeks.