Ultimately, Our Isles is a platform to explore and appreciate subjects like artisan and regional food, nature, rural history and heritage. The public's discovery and support for speciality cheeses has helped many producers to survive, and this book is a tribute to their hard work and dedication. The book is rich with information and stunning photography, making it a beautiful addition to any coffee table. With beautiful photography, hearty cheese based recipes, and a new insight into each of these wonderful artisans, this will be treasured by anyone with a love of cheese, the countryside and traditional cooking. Through a selection of thirty cheesemakers and their cheeses, I hope to show how British artisan cheese is profoundly connected to the land, farm animals and people involved in making it.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.A Portrait Of British Cheese celebrates the excellence of artisan and farmhouse cheese in the British Isles, expressing it as a product of the land, its animals, and its people, offering a snapshot of rural life, traditions and delicious dishes. From Lincolnshire Poacher to Stichelton (the original Stilton), Britain's own Brie in the form of Baron Bigod from Suffolk, to Brefu Bach sheep's milk cheese from Snowdonia and Appleby's Cheshire cheese from the heart of rural Shropshire, this is a unique journey through photos, essays and recipes, revealing the joys and challenges of a life in cheesemaking. They have been organic since the 1970s and now produce one of the best Cheddars out there – check them out! I visited several artisan cheesemakers around East Anglia where I grew up and in Wales where I am now living. With A Portrait of British Cheese, I wanted to celebrate the excellence of cheese in the British Isles.

This book highlights the wonderful diversity of people, scales and skills which characterise and bind together the emergent community of UK artisan cheese makers. A Portrait of British Cheese celebrates the excellence of artisan and farmhouse cheese in the British Isles, expressing it as a product of the land, its animals, and its people, offering a snapshot of rural life, artisan traditions and delicious dishes. For the making side of cheese, timings, temperatures, length of making, milk handling, weather conditions, among many more variables, all affect the make.The UK farmhouse cheese industry has faced its biggest challenges in recent years, with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing many small cheesemakers out of business. It highlights the wonderful diversity of people, scales and skills which characterise and bind together the emergent community of UK artisan cheese makers. Angus’s authenticity, his passion for sustainable food and his respect for the people behind the products shine through. Angus D Birditt is a young Author, Photographar and advocate for the thriving traditions of rural life, farming and Cheesemaking in the British Isles. Graham Kirkham of Kirkham’s Lancashire (1 of 30 artisan cheesemakers in the book) said that ‘every piece of cheese is a part of history’, his cheese being made to the same recipe his great grandmother made.

Farming forms the building blocks of food, and in terms of cheese, it’s the foundation for determining the quality of milk used for cheesemaking. With the recent challenges faced by small cheesemakers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this book is a timely reminder of the importance of supporting local, artisanal cheesemakers. I have always lived in the countryside, either in rural Cambridgeshire throughout my childhood, surrounded by arable fields and mixed woodlands, or in North Wales after university, where I really started to take foraging seriously and experience new landscapes and wildlife. What I found fascinating about artisan cheese is how many different varieties you can have from the same initial product, milk (which, of course, is so complex in itself).It now also encompasses other rural creatives, sharing and supporting them as much as possible as we do in our online editorial, Stories within Our Isles. I can’t wait to try all the recipes in the book - Stichelton ice cream with candied apples is first on my list!

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Hi book is a celebration and record of his journey across the British Isles visiting 30 small scale Cheesemakers to discover their unique traditions and histories. It is one of those rare food products can be spoken about in the same sentence as terroir – loosely defined as ‘evoking the character of the land’ or more broadly, the ecosystem. A Portrait of British Cheese" is a must-read for anyone interested in the traditional cheesemaking community in the British Isles.

Darker than' is Tanmay's collection of handmade clothes inspired by his response to the changing landscape and light of Seven Sisters in East Sussex. Besides my love for the natural environment and a real desire to celebrate what was going on in it, hopefully conserving it in someway, Our Isles was kick-started in essence when I started The Bridge Lodge, a small food company which sold a range of foraged products like wild garlic pestos and wild garlic sea salt. I found myself starting to collect a body of work (photographs and prose) on various cheesemakers across the British Isles, fascinated by their deep knowledge of their local landscape and ecosystem, and their care for their animals. They are a friendly bunch these cheese folk, and I’m sure they would be happy to chat about their cheeses. We hosted monthly supper clubs, often cooking 5 different courses each evening to celebrate the wonderful, regional food and drink we have in the British Isles.