Made by Maugan & Todd Trethowan
Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
The name, Pitchfork, is a reference to the old Cheddar-making tools used to toss the curds to cool them while mixing in the salt – a practice which continues to be carried out by all the Cheddar makers who supply Neal's Yard Dairy.
Historically, most West Country cheesemakers produced Cheddar before embarking on a cheese more commonly associated with their friends across the Welsh border: Caerphilly. Cheddar takes over a year to mature, while Caerphilly can be turned around in a month or less, so in leaner times, particularly between the first and second world wars, Caerphilly sales provided a steady flow of income while the Cheddar took its time to age. The Trethowans, however, have gone about this the other way round. While based in their home country of Wales, they made their name producing their signature Gorwydd Caerphilly, but when they moved across the border to a dairy farm just up the road from the Somerset market town of Cheddar they felt compelled to begin producing a clothbound Cheddar alongside it. The milk comes from their herd of Holstein and Jersey cows, which graze on the farm's organic pastures. The Cheddar is handmade in small batches to a traditional farmhouse recipe.
We have a longstanding relationship with the Trethowans, visiting Somerset six times per year, tasting through two months production in order to select our specific batches and provide feedback from our shops and wholesale customers. We typically sell this cheese when it has been aged for 12-15months.