BEENLEIGH BLUE CHEESE

Robin Congdon started farming in the 1970s with 30 sheep.  With time he diversified into making cheese and set-up Ticklemore Cheese, creating classics such as Devon Blue, Harbourne Blue and Ticklemore Goat, which is now made by the nearby Sharpham Dairy.

Ben Harris now runs Ticklemore Cheese; the sheep now a distant memory, as they concentrate on making their cheeses. The milk comes from local farmer Tom Garland, who keeps 250 Friesland sheep. 

They are grazed outside from Spring to Summer and Ben only takes their milk from January to July to make Beenleigh Blue. Taste wise, this translates, through seasonal variations, from being flinty and minerally early season to more rich and robust later in the year.

The original recipe for Beenleigh Blue was developed by the founder, Robin Congdon and based on Roquefort.  He went over to visit the caves but they would tell him nothing, so he brought back a scraping of mould and started from there.  Robin then built a maturing cellar to mimic the conditions of the Roquefort caves.

After being moulded and pierced to allow the blue mould to form, Beenleigh Blue is wrapped in foil to prevent rind development.

The cheese Ben produces today is very different from Roquefort,  its got the richness and sweetness of sheep’s milk, but is flinty, minerally and light, being aged for four months.  As it gets older throughout the year it gets stronger and more mature in flavour.