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Cheese Week: Week 22 of BigBarn’s Food & Drink Weeks

If you are pro British milk then supporting British cheese can certainly go a long way to supporting the dairy industry.
There are over 2000 varieties of cheese world wide and 700 British cheeses to choose from. From Britain’s favourite cheese, Cheddar, to soft goat’s cheeses, hard sheep’s cheeses or those that have been mixed up with herbs, spice or fruits, there’s a cheese out there to suit all tastes.

Local farm shops and cheesemongers all over the country stock delicious local cheeses so when you are next on holiday pop in and get yourself something special from your holiday destination.

13 fun cheese facts:

1. Cheese isn’t just made with cows milk, but also with sheep milk, goat milk, buffalo milk, horse milk and even camel milk! Cheese made from Moose milk is successfully made on a farm in Sweden, despite the short lactation period of the Moose.cheese cut

2. To make cheese, milk has to be separated into curds and whey, cheese is made with the curds.

3. Some cheeses, like Mature Cheddar, are stored for a year or longer before they are ready to eat.

4. Cheddar is named after the Cheddar Gorge caves in Somerset where the cheese used to be stored to ripen. Cheddar is one of the most widely made cheeses in the world.

5. The majority of Shropshire Blue is made in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

6. Cheshire is one of the oldest British cheeses.

Real cheese

Real cheese

7. Cornish Yarg came from a recipe found in a book in a farmer’s attic

8. Caerphilly was traditionally eaten by Welsh coal miners for their lunch.

9. Every spring sees locals in the village of Stilton, Peterborough, race along a course rolling Stilton shaped wheels.

10. Cheese production around the globe is more than the combined worldwide production of coffee, tobacco, tea, and cocoa beans.

11. A matchbox-sized piece of hard cheese provides a third of an adult’s daily requirement for calcium.

12. Cheese is a source of vitamin B12, which you need for red blood cell formation.

13. People of Greece are the largest consumers of cheese worldwide. An average person from Greece consumes around 27.3 kg of cheese every year, about ¾ of which is feta cheese.

Although the supermarkets are a great place to discover a wide range of cheese, it’s in your local cheesemonger, farm shop or deli that you’ll find Britain’s hidden gems and get the story behind them.

Artisan cheese at your local Farm Shop

Artisan cheese at your local Farm Shop

To buy a selection of delicious cheeses direct from the producer, visit the BigBarn Marketplace, or to discover tiny producers who may be churning unusual varieties in a village near you, search our local food map here. Or even try making your own cheese using a cheesemakers kit.

This week is also British Cheese Week – a fantastic celebration of all things cheesy! People up and down the country will be delving into the delights of Britain’s eclectic cheese board and encouraged to try more than just Cheddar. Click here to find out more and keep your eye out for this year’s winners of the British Cheese Awards!

If you have a favourite cheese recipe that you’d like to share, or any other recipe, and would like the chance to win a prize, please video your recipe and add it to KIS (Keep it Simple) Cookery. Please have a look at existing videos here and try and keep your video less than 2 minutes long.

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