Eve

Eve is made by the Whitelake Cheese Company at Bagborough Farm, in Pylle Somerset, just off the Glastonbury festival site.

Cheese making in the family started back in the 1930’s with Roger’s grandfather, who focused on Cheddar production. Roger is now the third generation cheesemaker of his family and delved into goat’s cheese production for the first time in 2004, into what was a very niche market at the time in the UK.

When Roger took over, Whitelake Cheese Company quickly became one of the most successful UK cheesemakers, having now won awards for almost all of their cheeses. They remain the first dairy to have won the title of Supreme Champion at the British Cheese Awards on three consecutive years with three different cheeses. They are committed to experimenting with and revolutionising production methods and love to push boundaries with their techniques and creative ideas. Their cheesemaking facility is specially tailored for production of lots of very small batches of cheese rather than any kind of mass production so they can produce a wide range of cheeses at any given time and ensure quality.

The goat’s cheeses are all made with milk from his own herd of French Alpine goats, who are fed a very special diet, which is GM and soya free, adapted for cheesemaking. The goats also eat hay from unfertilised fields from the Somerset levels which are covered in flowers and interesting grasses. In the spring and summer, they spend most of their time on the company’s vast flower meadows grazing freely, among many insects, birds and mammals.

Organic Guernsey cows’s milk is sourced very locally and ewe’s milk comes from a well trusted farm nearby. This means food miles are minimal and the cheese production supports the local community.

The dairy is kept as environmentally friendly as possible. They have installed solar panels across the farm which provide their electricity under two schemes. One of their schemes provides power to the goats and the other to the cheese making facilities. They are currently trying to completely move away from the National Grid and rely solely on solar. To aid this, they have LED lighting throughout their facilities, most of which are on movement sensors which means they turn off automatically when not in use. They also have a 4-megawatt solar farm which feeds into the National Grid.

The dairy have also installed a 200 KW wood boiler and are even beginning to grow their own fuel for it. Currently the wood comes from local, renewable sources and the biomass boiler means milk is heated very efficiently. All of the water used at the farm comes from a bore hole.

Whitelake Cheese Co are also part way through a 4 year program of hedge laying, which provides a vital habitat for the local wildlife. Alongside this, they have planted 7 acres of trees to offset the carbon they are burning. Over the next ten years, this will expand to cover 20 acres.

Whitelake also grow wheat and maize for neighbouring farms using regenerative farming methods and predominantly use animal manure instead of fertiliser. If anything else is absolutely necessary, only bee friendly sprays are used.