A Visit to Lynher Dairies
Our relationships with our producers, our cheesemakers, are at the very heart of Neal’s Yard Dairy work towards championing British cheese. We visit with them regularly to taste, select, and discuss their products, and to deepen our knowledge of and experience with their cheese.
Nathan from our wholesale team returned to his West Country roots in August 2020 to visit the team at Lynher Dairies near Truro, West Cornwall, makers of Cornish Kern and Cornish Yarg.
Cornish Yarg and Cornish Kern
Neal’s Yard Dairy sells two cheeses made by Catherine Mead and team at Lynher Dairies: Cornish Yarg and Cornish Kern. Cornish Yarg is a delicate, yoghurty cheese wrapped and matured in beautiful deep green nettle leaves, while Cornish Kern has characteristics of both alpine-style cheeses and Gouda, with rich, nutty flavours.
Cornish Yarg is available for wholesale order and online here. Cornish Kern is usually only available only for wholesale order.
One of the Ayrshire cows who provides milk for our cheeses
The Herd
During my visit, I took the drive out to the farm to meet their herd of about 80 Ayrshire cows. At the time, they were only milking 57. They are growing their herd slowly, in order to manage milk production and related labour requirements. During the summer months the cows are out grazing the pastures, with a diet made up of about 90% grass and 10% haylage. I learned that the grass growing in the fields at the time is mostly rye grasses, which can produce milk with softer fats that results in a lower yield.
A view into the cheesemaking room at Lynher Dairies
The Milk
One of the things that makes our relationship with Lynher Dairies so special is that 100% of the milk produced by their herd of Ayrshires is used to make the Cornish Yarg cheeses specially designed for Neal’s Yard Dairy – a recipe using traditional animal rennet, 100% Ayrshire milk, and weighing 4kg rather than 3kg. Currently, the dairy has stopped production of Cornish Kern as their stocks are plentiful, but when production starts again these cheeses will also use 100% Ayrshire milk. In addition to the own herd milk which is/will be used for Neal’s Yard Dairy’s cheeses, Lynher also buys in milk from a local co-op to make the bulk of the cheeses they sell.
Freshly cut Cornish Yarg curds, later pressed into their moulds
The Make
My attention was on Cornish Kern this visit, as historically this cheese was only sold to our export customers (mainly Australia). This year marks the first that we have made it available to our UK customers.
The aim with Kern was to make a cheese akin to a semi-alpine cheese. A previous cheesemaker at Lynher visited Europe to source the suitable alpine-style starter cultures to encourage a close texture within the cheese. The cheesemaking team also sought insight from Ivan Larcher a French technical consultant cheesemaker, who spent some time with the Lynher team to develop a more flavourful, slightly softer paste.
During the make, the milk is scalded for 20 minutes and then pressed into a single solid block into 4kg moulds. The cheese is then floated in a briny bath for 2 days before being painted in a black breathable wax-like coating to develop a rind.
Cornish Kern in the maturation room
The Maturation
Cornish Kern is stored at around 7.5º C in the highest humidity possible. The cheeses are turned daily up until they reach 3 months of age, then twice a week up until 6 months, and finally only once per week from 6 months onwards. To help with this labour-intensive job, Lynher has created a metal racking system with rotating bars that can turn hundreds of cheeses in just minutes.
Our ideal age profile for this cheese ranges between 24-26 months, depending on the market. For domestic customers, we look for something around 24 months old that tends to exhibit more juicy, bright flavours, while for our Australian customers we often choose a more savoury cheese aged around 26 months.