The Global Farm Metric Selection

Tom and Clare Noblet turned to cheesemaking when a steep fall in milk prices in late 2014 made the viability of their beautiful Whin Yeats dairy farm seem increasingly tenuous, despite the time and effort they'd invested over the previous few years in improving the farm. Cheese, they thought, would offer a way of adding value to the exceptional milk of their pedigree Holstein cows, so they signed up for cheesemaking courses and began building themselves a dairy.

Ivy House Farm, in Beckington, Somerset, is run by Geoff and Kim Bowles alongside their son Darren and the wider team, and has supplied all of our fresh milk and cream, along with Jersey butter, for many years. They are one of only a small coterie of UK farms that bottle their milk and cream and sell it under their own brand, rather than through a contract with a cooperative. We love the rich sweetness of the milk and cream, which forms the backbone of the classic milk-based drinks served in Monmouth Coffee's London shops.

Selina Cairns took over cheesemaking duties from her father Humphrey Errington, who had sought to reinvigorate the upper Clyde area’s rich tradition of cheesemaking after moving to the farm in the 1980s. She continues to make cheese together with her sister-in-law Angela. The animals are tended to by Selina’s husband Andrew, making Errington Cheese a true family affair. The Erringtons farm two flocks: the Lacaune ewes whose milk is used to make the dairy’s sheep’s cheeses and a herd of around 150 goats – a mixture of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine

We’ve worked with the Keen Family since the early days of Neal’s Yard Dairy, and today they are important partners, both providing the raw-milk Cheddar that we supply exclusively to Whole Foods Market in the USA, but also producing Moorhayes Whey Butter that we sell in our shops. The Keens have farmed at Moorhayes Farm in Somerset since 1899, and today dairy farmer Nick Keen and cheesemaker James Keen continue the family tradition.

Run by mother and son, Catherine Mead and Otto Mead, in Ponsanooth, Cornwall, Lynher Dairies are committed to preserving the traditional craftmanship of British artisan cheesemaking. They believe that food should be more than sustenance – it should tell a story, create community, and inspire meaningful change. They treat their environment, dairy, animals, and people with the respect they deserve, knowing that outstanding cheese begins with responsible stewardship.

Appleby’s Cheshire is made at Abbey House Farm, which has been farmed by the family across several generations. In recent years, Paul & Sarah Appleby have undergone a conversion towards a more regenerative and sustainable way of farming. The fresh, raw milk is the master ingredient, to which they add traditional cultures, rennet, salt from the Cheshire Plains and the extract of the annatto seed. For them, the cheese becomes a time capsule of the land, displaying the unique flora of their natural surroundings.