Summer Field Alpine
Supplied by: The Courtyard Dairy | Delivery Details
Only made when the cows are at pasture during the summer months, this cheese is in extremely short supply. Made to a Gruyère recipe, it has that sweet, supple nuttiness associated with the best Gruyères.
Botton Village Community (a Camphill Village Trust) makes a range of traditional farmhouse cheeses using full-flavoured, quality milk collected from the community’s 46 Dairy Shorthorn cows (a traditional Craven breed known for the superb quality of their milk).
Alastair, a local lad working at Botton, travelled to Germany to learn his cheese-making trade. Using this knowledge, and the Dairy Shorthorn’s rich, yellow milk, Alastair makes Summerfield, this Alpine-style cheese. Gruyère-style cheeses are notoriously difficult to make and cannot be made from silage-fed animals (for technical reasons), so whereas Botton’s Dale End Cheddar can be, and is, made all year round, Summer Field is only made when the cows are out at pasture and thus in very limited supply. This pasture-grazing gives the cheese its name – Summer Field.
Botton is one of the Camphill Village Trust that exist as social enterprise for people with learning disabilities, mental health problems and other special needs. The community has over 70 residents, is set in the wild and beautiful North Yorkshire Moors, and is fully self-sustainable and biodynamic. Each of the residents has a role– working on the farms, helping Alastair to make and age his cheese, or in other roles (such as the local store, wood workshops, making preserves and baking bread).
This product will have two weeks shelf life from the date of delivery.
This cheese also works well as a vegetarian gruyere!
