St Jude is made using the farm’s raw Montbeliarde cow’s milk, piped fresh from the milking parlour to the cheese room. The milk composition changes throughout the year depending on the seasons, the cow’s lactation stage and what they are eating. Production of this lactic-set cheese is slow and gentle, each cheese is hand-made with as little intervention as possible, while keeping an eye on cheesemaking conditions. The curd is cut into 1 cm cubes before being ladled into moulds and allowed to drain. At four days, the cheeses are dry salted and then matured for around two weeks, during which time they develop a thin mould and yeast rind.

Young St Jude has a recognisable white wrinkly rind with a soft, smooth paste. It has a fresh grass aroma and clean, salted cream flavour.

Aged St Jude becomes more molten with farmyard aromas and vegetal, field mushroom notes.

Blue /Green spots on St Jude.

Certain times of the year, the St Jude cheese, pick up spots of blue / green mould.

This mould is not introduced and is purely environmental.

The blue / green mould does not change the nature of the cheese in any way and is completely harmless. It occurs on many artisan cheeses from time to time, both continental and from the UK. Many people welcome the ‘variation’ in these artisanal, hand-made cheeses.