Blessed are the cheese makers

Sue Lawrence explores the great tasty world of Scottish cheese.

One Easter weekend some nine years ago, 350 animals were killed in a UK-wide Foot and Mouth cull at Loch Arthur Community in Dumfriesshire. Determined to remember that tragic day in a more uplifting way, the members of Locharthur Creamery made a batch of their unpasteurised organic cheese with the last milking from the doomed dairy herd. The cheeses were stored away and regularly tested, during the eight long weeks cheese production ceased. Then in late September of the same year Easter cheese was entered in the prestigious British Cheese Awards and for the first time ever, won a Gold Medal, the cheese was truly outstanding.

Perhaps it was fate, providence or just plain good luck. But the cheese certainly deserved acclaim then as it does now, for it is an incredibly tasty, sophisticated cheese with a true, lingering flavour which makes it one of Scotland's greats.

The story of Loch Arthur is not all about serendipity, however. It is also about hard work, dedication and vision. The Loch Arthur Community is well known locally as it produces organic vegetables and fruit for the farm shop, raises organic beef and dairy cattle and sheep, bakes bread in their own bakery and of course makes world-class cheese. But it is also unique in Scotland, as the community of some 75 people includes 30 adults with learning difficulties, all of whom share in the work. A visit to Loch Arthur is humbling not only to see the fruits of the labours of so many devoted people but to taste and see tha...

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• By : Sue Lawrence
• In : Scotland Food
• Issue : 51
• Page : 42
• Words : 822