What we leave behind
Credit: Quicke’s
I was at a conference last week when the email came through about Valerine Bines’ passing. A paragon of the British cheese making industry, we shall miss her on many levels. Our thoughts and condolences to her friends and family.
This did get me to thinking, it is often about what is left behind when someone passes. What marks they’ve made on the world, and who has benefited from their teachings. In Val’s case, it was about the cheeses developed and the students educated about the skills required to turn milk into that glorious product, cheese. Every time someone has a piece of artisanal cheese here in the UK, she is one of the people they can thank.
Cheese making by its nature is about history – at least, the tasty ones are. An industry that has survived 6,000 years of humankind is one where the product is beloved. People like to enjoy cheese.
So it remains critical that people are taught how to make it properly, which is where Val and her fellow cheese technologists come in. Knowledge is power and makes for very good cheese.
It’s also important to hold onto the terroir of the product, as seen with Barber’s Cheesemakers, a heritage cheese maker, in the UK. It produces a protected designation of origin (PDO) for West Country Farmhouse Cheddars, using cows from within 30 miles of its processing site. Plus, it retains the country’s last remaining traditional cheese starter cultures library, which it assists other cheese makers with. This is the ‘friendly’ bacteria that start the cheese making process and contribute to the final texture, aroma and taste. “Only by using these cultures can we be sure that we’re making true West Country cheddar,” its website says.
It’s often about leaving something behind for future generations to enjoy, while remembering the people that meant so much to us.
- Suzanne Christiansen, editor, Dairy Industries International.
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