The Stone family began cheese making by accident.
It all started in 1967 on the shores of the Dornoch Firth by Tain, where Reggie and Susannah Stone ran their micro dairy with 14 Dairy Shorthorn cows.
One day Reggie complained to his wife that no one made Crowdie cheese anymore, but Susannah suggested she could and set about souring a 10 gallon churn of milk in the family bath.
Ten gallons of milk quickly became a stone of cheese – a little more than Reggie had planned on.
‘My father came back from the war to farm at Blarliath on the southern shores of the Dornoch Firth by Tain,’ said son Rory Stone, who now runs the family business Highland Fine Cheeses.
Rory joined th4e family business, Highland Fine Cheeses, in 1994.
‘He married a sassenach with tenuous Highland connections and they milked 14 dairy short horns along with the vicious, depressive bull, Geordie.
‘One day my mother said she would make Crowdie and stuck a ten gallon churn in the bath to sour naturally.
‘After four days of not being able to have a bath, my father went to the pharmacist who gave him lacto acidophilus to assist with the souring and setting of the milk. The next day we had Crowdie and everyone had a bath to celebrate.’
Originally the cheese making took place in the basement of the family home. ‘I can’t begin to explain how inappropriate that was,’ Rory said.
Rory says cheese is possibly the earliest man made food, with origins going back to 5,000 BC at the very least.
‘I vividly remember the smell of boiling milk to sterilise it before adding the bulk starter.
‘It came from Ayrshire by the post, without any kind of refrigeration, in a little glass bottle full of live culture and my mother would spoon it in.
‘Once you had made a whole bottle of starter – pretty much a yogurt – then we warmed up a ten gallon churn of milk and added a pint of starter.
‘Once we moved into the dairy down on the farm at Blarliath I can remember showing bus tours around the dairy. I didn’t have a clue what I was talking about at the time.’
They still sell cheeses like Caboc, Scotland’s oldest, but Rory says the future is blues, bries, and lactic yeasty cheeses.
And Rory hopes people will start to eat more cheese as he thinks it is amazing for gut health.
They still sell cheeses like Caboc but Rory says the future is blues, bries, and lactic yeasty cheeses.
‘The best way to get more people to eat more cheese – and you really should because it’s amazing for your gut health, especially the smelly washed rind varieties – is to make better cheese.
‘People travel, they experiment, everyone wants more gooey, unctuous, meaty cheeses that walk off the plate to your palate.
‘But we have to be honest, the market is growing but the artisan industry is struggling, perhaps dying.
‘Dairying is being centralised, it’s a tide we can’t turn back and so only the few would be determined enough to sacrifice so much to make so little.’
Rory’s earliest memories of enjoying cheese as a child are from visiting his local cheesery in Tain.
‘We had a wonderful cheese shop at the top of market street in Tain. There were amazing cheeses and it always had a wonderful smell of freshly ground coffee, it was a lovely place.
‘I adored all the different cheeses sitting open on a shelf. The first time I tasted something heavenly was a Dolcelatte – I couldn’t believe anything could taste so good when all I was used to was fresh Crowdie and Caboc – a bit like rancid butter rolled in porridge.
Black Crowdie – Soft cheese rolled in oatmeal and black peppercorn.
The cheese making process starts with pasteurising the milk to get rid of any unwanted organisms, before adding the starter that sours it. Rennet is then added to turn it into a yoghurt consistency before the curd is put into moulds to shape it.
‘Cheese is quite possibly the earliest man made food. We can trace its origins back to 5,000 BC at the very least.
‘Essentially it’s preserved milk. Milk is 85% water and so it goes off awful quick. The preservation method is threefold; pickling by acidifying the milk, dehydrating by reducing the moisture and salting at the end.
‘We pasteurise our milk to blank out any unwanted organisms, add the bacteria (starter) that sours the milk, add rennet, cut the curd once it’s set, stir the curd to allow the whey to drain out and then put the curd into moulds to shape and drain it.’
Now the company produces around 16 tonnes a month of their artisan cheeses, Skinny Crowdie, Black Crowdie, Morangie Brie, Minger, Caboc, Fat Cow, Blue Murder and Strathdon Blue.
Read more Producer’s Corner here.
Subscribe to read the latest issue of Scottish Field.
TAGS