Double Gloucester
A traditional Cheese of Gloucestershire, originating from the Berkeley Vale.A Double Gloucester Cheese should have a fudgy texture and fruity taste and is less dense than a Cheddar. Our Double Gloucester is traditionally matured and cloth bound. We mature for at least 5 months, usually 6-8 months at selling. Although Double Gloucester can be made anywhere in the world (unlike Single Gloucester) there are only 5 cheesemakers in Gloucestershire making Double Gloucester.
Single Gloucester
Single Gloucester Cheese was revived about Charles Martel. It is a lighter and earlier maturing cheese than its big brother Double. Traditionally made using half skimmed milk it has a fresh, sometimes nutty taste, slightly more acidic than Double but very moorish. If eaten with good company and a bottle of wine it soon disappears from the table!
Single Gloucester has a P.D.O. – Protected Designated Origin, so can only be made in Gloucestershire. There are four Cheesemakers in Gloucestershire who make Single Gloucester. It is a requirement to own some Gloucester Cattle in order to make Single Gloucester. They are a rare breed, much smaller than a Friesian cow, brown/black in colour with a distinctive white stripe which starts half way down their back and goes all the way down their tail.
Leonard Stanley
There are some excellent Cheddar Cheeses available from the West Country made by well established families, so to distinguish ours we thought Leonard Stanley was an appropriate name. We mature our Cheddar for a mimimum of seven months, with each month after seven months taste improves. Our Cheddars are traditionally matured and cloth bound and come in 10kg rounds.
Holy Smoked
Holy Smoked is our Single Gloucester cheese but not traditionally matured, as the smoke would not penetrate rind evenly. It is smoked by my husband Bryan, using oak or beech chippings and is the only Smoked Single Gloucester in the world.
Three Virgins
Three Virgins is a cheshire style cheese, white, youngish and crumbly with a tangy sharp bite. It is ready to eat at about three months. It is vacuum packed to mature and is made in 3 1/2kg rounds. Really nice with a shortbread biscuit or something sweet.
Singing Granny
A Mature single Gloucester with oodles of flavour, can be like a parmasan. Limited availability.
Cockadilly Chilli
Named after a small hamlet, next to Nympsfield, not farm from our farm. This cheese is made with our Three Virgins cheeses and mixed with select chilli’s giving hints of Mediteranean tomatoes.
It is very hot! If you like the heat from chilli’s then this is the cheese for you.
Village Gossip
This is made using our Single Gloucester and chives. Usually appreciated by those who like a strong cheese, stating the obvious but very oniony!
Named in recognition of Sir Stanley Spencer who lived in our village pub, The White Hart, for a couple of years after the war. Whilst there he painted the picture “Village Gossips” which can be seen at Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery. It shows a group of villagers and himself with his wife Hilda and his lady friend Daphne. Daphne’s skirt looks like chives in cheese!