Cheesemaker Blake Bowden hails from Australia; St Helena is named after the town where his family lived for 25 years, located at the easternmost point of the continent, not far from Byron Bay.
After working with cheese in the United States and a Christmas spent selling cheese in our Covent Garden shop, Blake joined St Jude Cheese in 2018. There he worked with Julie Cheyney who makes St Jude and St Cera. Blake was inspired by the Saint Nectaire that he had eaten when visiting the Auvergne for a friend’s wedding and thought about making a semi-soft cheese in a similar style. It was during the pandemic that the development of St Helena started in earnest.
St Helena is made with milk from the herd of Montbeliarde cows at Fen Farm Dairy, which is home to Baron Bigod.
We keep St Helena in our warmest maturing room for about 3 weeks to encourage the growth of the mucor (grey mould) on the rind of the cheese. Mucor is not always desirable on cheeses we sell, but in this case it lends a beautifully earthy flavour to the cheese in the style of French cheese St Nectaire. Once we are happy with the development of the rind we wrap the cheese and place into the cold room ready for sale.