The Padfield family have been happily milking a herd of cows at Park Farm for four generations. Edward Ernest Padfield took on the 240 acres of Park Farm in August 1914. Cheddar cheese was made by his wife in the building that adjoined the farmhouse and the cows were milked by hand in the building across the yard. They had a small herd of Shorthorn cows.

In 1990, when Graham Padfield decided to start making cheese again, he was able to do so in the very same buildings in which his grandmother had made her Cheddar nearly 80 years before.

There is an old farming saying, “Look after your cows and your cows will look after you.”

It goes to the heart of what happens here at Park Farm. We take a traditional approach both to how we raise and graze our small herd of 160 mainly Holstein Friesian cows and to our artisan, handmade, hands-on cheesemaking.

We are entirely organic and are registered with Organic Farmers and Growers – so that means no fungicides, pesticides or artificial fertilisers are used on our land. Instead we use manure and organic compost: the environment, the land and the waterways remain uncontaminated. Our milk and cheese is produced in a way that protects our natural world and lets every farm animal feel the sun on its back.

Of course, we do not avoid technology if it will contribute to our animals’ welfare or will improve the quality of our cheese. We have a brand new milking parlour that allows our cows to produce one million litres of milk per year. Around 60% of this is turned into cheese in our state-of-the-art cheese facility, while the rest goes to another cheesemaker who uses it to make organic cheddar or to another producer who makes our delicious ice-cream.

Our process

Milk supply
Good milk supply is of course crucial. We’re lucky enough to be able to use our own organic milk as soon as our cows are milked each morning – you can’t get fresher than that!

Acidification
Fresh milk typically has a fairly neutral pH of around 6.6. Now, whether raw or pasteurised, the milk is now encouraged to acidify. This is the first stage in the process of turning milk from a liquid to a solid.

Coagulation
Once the acidification process is judged to be sufficiently underway, rennet is added to coagulate the milk into a solid. Rennet does this by causing the casein in the milk to precipitate (around 80% of the protein in cow’s milk is casein). Without getting too technical, the fat in the milk becomes trapped in a matrix of casein, leading to the formation of curd.

Cutting the Curd
After an hour or so, the rennet will have transformed the milk into a solid, slightly gelatinous mass of curd. The whey (the liquid part of the milk) must now be released from the curd. This is done by cutting the curd evenly into smaller pieces.

The smaller the pieces of curd, the more whey is released and – by and large – the firmer and drier the eventual cheese will be. So our Bath Soft Cheese will be cut into larger pieces than Bath Blue .

Stirring at this stage will also help to release more whey. It takes all the cheesemaker’s skill and know-how to determine just how much to stir or cut the cheese to achieve the desired texture and consistency.

With some cheeses, such as Cheddar and Wyfe of Bath, it is desirable to increase the temperature of the curd to achieve a firmer set. The curd is scalded by draining off some of the whey and replacing it with hot water. Stacking the resulting curd in blocks on top of one another (a process known as ‘cheddaring’) also drives out more of the whey.

Salting and Shaping
The cheese has continued to acidify throughout the process. When it has reached a sufficient level of acidity, salt is added to halt further acidification. The salt also serves to add flavour, works as a preservative and helps to develop a rind on the cheese.

The salt can be added directly to the curds (Bath Blue), rubbed into the surface of the cheese once it has been moulded (Bath Soft Cheese) or the cheese can be soaked in a salt brine (Wyfe of Bath).

The curds are poured into moulds. These moulds will determine the size and shape of the finished cheese. Whey will continue to be expelled from the cheese through holes in the moulds. Some cheeses, such as Cheddar, are pressed to expel even more whey.

Affinage
The final stage of cheesemaking is to ripen the cheeses. Temperature and humidity must be carefully controlled to ensure the cheese matures at the right speed and with the right texture and flavour. Surface moulds are encouraged to develop (some cheeses have other cultures added at this stage) – or they may be washed in alcohol or brine.

It’s a delicate process requiring the full attention of the cheesemaker. Many cheeses require regular turning to ensure that they maintain a uniform shape. Our Bath Blue has to be pierced hundreds of times, allowing air in – without this, the blue moulds will fail to ripen evenly throughout the cheese. By contrast, Bath Soft Cheese develops a white furry mould which, with regular turning, is compressed into the distinctive white rind found on Brie and Camembert.

Soft cheeses ripen quickly – our Bath Soft Cheese is ready to eat within three weeks of being made. Hard cheeses mature more slowly with our extra mature Wyfe of Bath being allowed anywhere between one and two years. At this end of the scale, the resulting cheese develops an almost crystalline texture.