Apatha
milk type
Goat
allergens
Allergens: MILK
ingredients
MILK, salt, rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Cartmel, Cumbria
Show More
milk type
Goat
allergens
Allergens: MILK
ingredients
MILK, salt, rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Cartmel, Cumbria
milk source
Own herd
breed
Saanen, Toggenburg, British Alpine
average age
3 weeks minimum
cheesemakers
Martin Gott
Show Less
Martin Gott, the maker of St James, is one of the rare breed of cheesemakers who propagate their own starter cultures rather than buying them in.
Background
Martin Gott and Nicola Robinson are best known for their sheep’s milk cheeses, but during the course of 2020’s coronavirus lockdown the couple acquired a herd of goats from Joe Bennett and Aimee La...
Read More
Martin Gott and Nicola Robinson are best known for their sheep’s milk cheeses, but during the course of 2020’s coronavirus lockdown the couple acquired a herd of goats from Joe Bennett and Aimee Lawn, the owners of Innes Cheese in Staffordshire, who stopped making cheese during the pandemic. Having been bred for over 20 years to produce high quality, flavoursome milk, these goats are perfectly attuned to the demands of cheesemaking. Martin and Nicola’s first goat’s cheese – a hard cheese called Holbrook – quickly found success. The savoury-sweet Apatha is their most recent creation, so-called because after the challenges they faced perfecting their ewe’s milk washed-rind cheese, St James, Martin and Nicola vowed never again to make another washed-rind cheese. Apatha is the name of the wood bordering their land – but it also means ‘wrong path’, a reference to their reneging on that vow by producing a goat’s milk version of St James.
Read Less
Our Work
We visit Holker Farm Dairy on our monthly trips to the north of England to taste and select cheeses to sell. Martin, who we’ve known since his time as a young man working at Borough Market, is very...
Read More
We visit Holker Farm Dairy on our monthly trips to the north of England to taste and select cheeses to sell. Martin, who we’ve known since his time as a young man working at Borough Market, is very proactive in experimenting with his make, so our time together is always highly engaging, educational and constructive for everyone. Earlier this year, Martin and Nicola faced having to cease production of Apatha as they were running out of capacity to wash the cheeses, due to the high demand for St James. As we were still keen on stocking Apatha, we asked them to send the cheeses down to us when a couple of days old, so that we could wash them at our maturing arches in London. For the time being, all the Apatha we sell is washed by us.
Read Less
FAQs
As a general rule of thumb, we would recommend roughly between 100 and 150 grams per person for after dinner, and a bit more if cheese is the focus of the meal. If you are buying cheese to serve over a couple of days or as part of a buffet, it is advisable to buy a few larger pieces. This will both look better and keep better than many small bits. To help visualise weights, a good tip is to consider that a regular supermarket pat of butter weighs between 200 and 250 grams. If you are at all unsure please give us a call for some advice.
The best option is to keep your cheese wrapped in its paper within a box in the fridge. This will prevent the cheese from drying out and absorbing other flavours. Your cheese will arrive wrapped in waxed cheese paper, which achieves the best possible balance between maintaining humidity around the cheese and allowing it to breathe. We are happy to provide some free extra cheese paper, just search for "cheese paper" and add it to your basket. We don't recommend cling film or foil as it can cause the cheese to sweat which will negatively affect the flavour.
Apatha
A washed-rind goat’s cheese whose deeply savoury, pinkish rind gives way to a sweet and floral paste that ranges – according to the batch and the season – from oozing to flaky and firm
Martin Gott, the maker of St James, is one of the rare breed of cheesemakers who propagate their own starter cultures rather than buying them in.
milk type
Goat
allergens
Allergens: MILK
ingredients
MILK, salt, rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Cartmel, Cumbria
milk source
Own herd
breed
Saanen, Toggenburg, British Alpine
average age
3 weeks minimum
cheesemakers
Martin Gott
background
Martin Gott and Nicola Robinson are best known for their sheep’s milk cheeses, but during the course of 2020’s coronavirus lockdown the couple acquired a herd of goats from Joe Bennett and Aimee Lawn, the owners of Innes Cheese in Staffordshire, who stopped making cheese during the pandemic. Having been bred for over 20 years to produce high quality, flavoursome milk, these goats are perfectly attuned to the demands of cheesemaking. Martin and Nicola’s first goat’s cheese – a hard cheese called Holbrook – quickly found success. The savoury-sweet Apatha is their most recent creation, so-called because after the challenges they faced perfecting their ewe’s milk washed-rind cheese, St James, Martin and Nicola vowed never again to make another washed-rind cheese. Apatha is the name of the wood bordering their land – but it also means ‘wrong path’, a reference to their reneging on that vow by producing a goat’s milk version of St James.
our work with this cheese
We visit Holker Farm Dairy on our monthly trips to the north of England to taste and select cheeses to sell. Martin, who we’ve known since his time as a young man working at Borough Market, is very proactive in experimenting with his make, so our time together is always highly engaging, educational and constructive for everyone. Earlier this year, Martin and Nicola faced having to cease production of Apatha as they were running out of capacity to wash the cheeses, due to the high demand for St James. As we were still keen on stocking Apatha, we asked them to send the cheeses down to us when a couple of days old, so that we could wash them at our maturing arches in London. For the time being, all the Apatha we sell is washed by us.
You may also like
From the blog
View all
Latest posts
