St Helena

St Helena is a semi-soft, washed-rind cheese made by cheesemaker Blake Bowden at Oakalby Dairy in Norfolk, near the town of Beccles. Blake joined St Jude Cheese in 2018 after working with cheese in the United States and spending a memorable Christmas on the shop floor at Neal’s Yard Dairy in Covent Garden. Inspired by a Saint Nectaire he tasted while visiting the Auvergne, Blake began developing St Helena during the pandemic, drawing on the milk and expertise around him.
Today, the cheese is made with milk from a single family farm near the Norfolk Broads, where the herd, mostly British Friesians, with some Ayrshire and Brown Swiss, grazes on pastures rich in grasses and wildflowers. Blake works closely with the herdsmen and with Julie Cheyney to shape the cheese in response to the seasonal character of the milk, creating a supple, richly flavoured cheese with a distinctive rind and a deep sense of place.

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.