milk type
Sheep
ingredients
Raw Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Animal Rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Near Berkswell, West Midlands
milk source
Own herd
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milk type
Sheep
ingredients
Raw Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Animal Rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Near Berkswell, West Midlands
milk source
Own herd
breed
Friesland
season
All year
average age
6-8 Months
cheesemakers
Julie Hay
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The distinctive UFO-like shape of the Berkswell is the result of it being moulded in a kitchen colander.
Background
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Our Work
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Serving Suggestions
A delicious alternative to parmesan. Grate over pasta, or any dish that is topped with cheese before grilling.
Shave Berkswell over a green salad dressed with a sharp lemony dressing.
Recipes
Fennel and Berkswell Gratin from Towpath
Towpath is a café perched along the Regent's Canal in London which regularly features our cheeses in their highly seasonal recipes. Co-proprietors Lori De Mori and Laura Jackson have published thei...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.

Berkswell
Berkswell is a hard ewe’s milk cheese with a complex sweetness


The distinctive UFO-like shape of the Berkswell is the result of it being moulded in a kitchen colander.
milk type
Sheep
ingredients
Raw Sheep's MILK, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Animal Rennet
coagulant
Animal Rennet
milk treatment
Raw
location
Near Berkswell, West Midlands
milk source
Own herd
breed
Friesland
season
All year
average age
6-8 Months
cheesemakers
Julie Hay
background
Ram Hall in the village of Berkswell, Warwickshire, has been in the hands of the Fletcher family for six generations. The first Berkswell cheese was made by Stephen Fletcher's mother Sheila in the early 1990s. Today, it is head cheesemaker Julie Hay who oversees the make, the milk for which is sourced entirely from Stephen's 450-strong flock of Friesland sheep. Stephen runs the farm with his son George and father Peter. Since 2021, they have been moving to seasonal production to better make use of the farm’s natural resources. The rainbow-like array of moulds you find on the rind of Berkswell are naturally occurring and can vary from red, to yellow, to purple, to green.
our work with this cheese
We visit Ram Hall to select our batches of Berkswell once a month, and the frequent contact affords us the opportunity to provide direct feedback to Stephen and Julie. We occasionally visit to make experimental batches, aiming to achieve a smoother texture and more direct flavour.
pairing suggestion
A delicious alternative to parmesan. Grate over pasta, or any dish that is topped with cheese before grilling.