Double Gloucester

A traditional Cheese of Gloucestershire, originating from the Berkeley Vale.

A Double Gloucester Cheese should have a fudgy texture and fruity taste and is less dense than a Cheddar. Our Double Gloucester is traditionally matured and cloth bound. We mature for at least 5 months, usually 6-8 months at selling. Although Double Gloucester can be made anywhere in the world (unlike Single Gloucester) there are only 5 cheesemakers in Gloucestershire making Double Gloucester.

Originally Double Gloucester was made with full evening milk and full morning milk (no cream removed). To emphasise this annatto crystals were used to give the cheese a creamy tangerine colour. In fact in the 16th Century a Double Gloucester cheese was judged on its depth of colour as the crystals were so expensive, the deeper the colour the better the cheese. Annatto comes from a south American beam tree - so they were obviously importing and exporting in the 16th Century. We still use annatto colouring today.

Single Gloucester Cheese was revived about Charles Martel. It is a lighter and earlier maturing cheese than its big brother Double. Traditionally made using half skimmed milk it has a fresh, sometimes nutty taste, slightly more acidic than Double but very moorish. If eaten with good company and a bottle of wine it soon disappears from the table!

Single Gloucester has a P.D.O. - Protected Designated Origin, so can only be made in Gloucestershire. There are four Cheesemakers in Gloucestershire who make Single Gloucester. It is a requirement to own some Gloucester Cattle in order to make Single Gloucester. They are a rare breed, much smaller than a Friesian cow, brown/black in colour with a distinctive white stripe which starts half way down their back and goes all the way down their tail.

Traditionally when all farmhouses made cheese, in Gloucestershire, if butter was to be made the cream was skimmed off the evenings milk for the butter and the skimmed milk that was left was put with the following mornings full milk and the cheese made was Single Gloucester - slightly lower fat cheese and earlier maturing. Our Single Gloucester is traditionally matured and cloth bound.

Our Gloucester cows are called ‘Double’, ‘Single’ (how original!) ‘Glossy’ (for Gloucester) and ‘Bunny’ (she was born on Easter Day), ‘Nutmeg’ and our Gloucester Bull is called ‘Fred’ (which apparently means Peace in Norwegian).

Leonard Stanley is the name of our village where we live and make our cheese, There are some excellent Cheddar Cheeses available from the West Country made by well established families, so to distinguish ours we thought Leonard Stanley was an appropriate name.

We mature our Cheddar for a mimimum of seven months, with each month after seven months taste improves. Our Cheddars are traditionally matured and cloth bound and come in 10kg rounds. Cheddar is the most popular cheese and can be found in 60% of all fridges! Probably the most dense of British cheeses but with amazing depth of taste, which continues for several minutes after being eaten.

Holy Smoked is our Single Gloucester cheese but not traditionally matured, as the smoke would not penetrate rind evenly. It is smoked by my husband Bryan, using oak or beech chippings and is the only Smoked Single Gloucester in the world.

The cheese is matured and smoked the week before sale, as it takes a few days for the smokiness to penetrate the cheese.

It is the best smoked cheese I’ve tasted - not that I’m biased - but its not too heavy, doesn’t taste like cigarettes, not too dry, in fact - perfect. Holy Smoked comes in 1kg quarters.

Scary Mary is a Nympsfield left to go mouldy! (‘aged’ is the correct terminology). While developing this cheese, Helena thought they looked rather scary in the fridge - lots of hairy balls of cheese - hence Scary Mary came about. They are very strong and not to everyones liking. Similar to Camembert but with a peppery, blue finish.

Makes a great conversation piece at a dinner table. Ideal present for a mother-in-law called Mary! My husband Bryan loves them - and people do buy them and come back for more! Only available at Farmers Market and special request.

Three Virgins is a cheshire style cheese, white, youngish and crumbly with a tangy sharp bite. It is ready to eat at about three months. It is vacuum packed to mature and is made in 3 1/2kg rounds. Really nice with a shortbread biscuit or something sweet.

Named after myself, Lorna and Helena as while making cheese we wear white overalls and white wellies and with a little imagination have similar qualities!