Feltham’s Farm launches exclusive Virtual Cheese Awards Supreme Champions Hamper
Image: Feltham's Farm
Feltham’s Farm is launching an exclusive limited edition Supreme Champions Hamper in collaboration with the Virtual Cheese Awards and Keen’s Cheddar.
The hamper will feature the three Supreme Champions since the awards began – Feltham’s Farm’s Renegade Monk (2020) and La Fresca Margarita (2021), and Keen’s Extra Mature Cheddar (2022).
The Supreme Champions Hamper includes 220g+ portions of the three winning cheeses, two packs of luxury biscuits from Bath producer The Fine Cheese Company, and a 126g jar of blackberry chutney from local Somerset producers The Jam Shed in Lytes Cary, or a quince jelly the Somerset Membrillo company.
The price for this hamper will be £38 including P&P to the UK (excluding Highlands and Islands). The Supreme Champions Hamper will be available from Friday 14 October 2022.
All three Supreme Champions come from within five miles of each other as the crow flies, in the Blackmore Vale, South Somerset.
Feltham’s Farm’s cheeses are non-traditional organic interpretations of continental cheeses Epoisse (Renegade Monk) and Queso Fresco (La Fresca Margarita). Keen’s Extra Mature Cheddar is a fifth-generation recipe for that most traditional of British cheeses, cheddar.
These three Supreme Champion cheeses are a celebration of the diversity of artisan British cheesemaking. They are also a celebration of the extraordinarily good milk and cheese which is produced in the Blackmore Vale; “the silicon valley of cheese”.
The Virtual Cheese Awards were established in 2020 by Sarah de Wit, a cheese expert who spent more than 15 years managing cheese and dairy quality and innovation at Asda. She wanted to create an award which supported and championed British cheesemakers in an authentic and transparent way by offering producers valuable feedback on their cheeses from a panel of Britain’s most experienced cheese experts.
Now in its fourth year, the VCA’s are the only cheese awards where all the judging is conducted live online for everyone to see. The live final is hosted by chef, broadcaster and local food champion, Nigel Barden.
The awards demonstrate best practice in judging and promote awareness of British cheese. It has raised the bar for makers, buyers, and cheesemongers around the world.
About the Cheeses
Renegade Monk is a soft, blue, organic cow’s cheese, drunkenly washed in ale. It is a multi-award winning cheese, and was recently crowned Supreme Champion, Best British Cheese in the inaugural Virtual Cheese Awards 2020, and won a Gold at the Mondial du Fromage in Tours, France 2021.
Using artisan techniques on a newly developed recipe, Renegade Monk is made from organic, pasteurised cow’s milk while the set curd is then hand washed in organic ale every few days as the cheese matures. Maturation takes no more than four weeks.
Cheesemaker, Marcus Fergusson, deliberately created a cheese of a style not traditionally found in Britain – but rather a cheese inspired by a range of Continental cheeses. It is most often compared to an Epoisses, but with an added hint of (occasionally visible) blue.
La Fresca Margarita
An organic “Queso Fresco” inspired by our travels in Spain, and Latin America. It is available Salted and Unsalted. It’s a lemony, fresh cheese, which is equally good drizzled with honey (as developed by our friends at Durslade Farmshop with their homegrown Somerset honey) and figs (the unsalted version), or used as a filling in a Mexican tacos (the salted one). People are telling us it makes the most divine cheesecakes as well. We say it really is best eaten within two weeks of make, though it will last longer. And crowned Supreme Champion at the Virtual Cheese Awards 2021.
Keen’s Extra Mature Cheddar
This multi award winning Traditional Unpasteurised Cheddar was crowned Supreme Champion in Virtual Cheese Awards 2022. Cheddar has been made by the Keen family on Moorhayes Farm since 1899. Keen’s cheddar builds on the fifth generation recipe and the alchemy of the cheese maker. The Cheese is smooth on the tongue and long on the pallet. The truckles are clothbound and matured for more
than 18 months giving a rich creamy flavour with a hint of citrus to finish.
The Supreme Champions hamper will be available to buy online from www.felthamsfarm.com and selected independent retailers around the UK.