Today we chat to our first international guests on the podcast; Gabrielle Kervella and Alan Cockman from Kervella cheese who are one of the three producers in New Zealand making Raw Milk cheese.

With both sharing impressive cheese making resumes in Australia, France, South Africa and now New Zealand, these veterans have a great story to tell with an incredible 80 years of combined experience.

We discuss Kervella's journey from a small goat farm in Western Australia, to learning how to make goat cheese in France on family holidays … trying to apply European techniques to Australian conditions, before finally returning to Gabriella’s home in New Zealand to what they thought would be their retirement. Not. So.

We get curd nerdy with Alan as he tells us about the evolution of starter cultures and the difference between how cheese is made today on a mass scale compared to what he is trying to achieve and how raw milk plays into this.

You can tell that Alan and Gabriella have a true and enduring passion for their craft and it is such a pleasure to share their story.

So let’s get into it.

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Follow Kervella at @KervellaCheese

Follow us @mouldcheese 

WELCOME TO RAW MILK CHEESE MONTH at the Podcast where we speak to the makers, growers, farmers, and families who are making the best RAW milk cheese in the Australia (and beyond!).

To kick things off, we talk with Burke Brandon from Prom Country Cheese in South Gippsland Victoria.

Last year, they released the Moyarra Reserve which was the first RAW milk cheese in Victoria for over 80 years.

It’s been a wild 12 months since for sure, so we thought this a great chance to check in and see how things are... a year after release.

It is in this month's cheese box, after-all.

Challenging year aside, Burke along with his wonderful wife Bron, took some time to reflect and fine tune not only their own processes, build on the connection with their customers (crucial to any business) and probably most importantly, build confidence in their production method.

Burke also offers some great insights into the barriers to Raw milk production in Australia and we get into the nitty gritty about ph, Acidity, cultures and the potential (well, hopeful) chance of making a raw milk blue cheese in the country. Or maybe that’s just us projecting our own wants.

Look, this one is great for those true curd nerds! So let's get into it.

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Follow @prom_ cheese

This week episode we're flipping the format and thanks to our guest host, the wonderful Hilary McNevin, Dan Sims is put in the hot seat as he talks all things MOULD Cheese Collective, how it evolved, how it's been and where it's going.

Pivot may be the word of the pandemic, so here is the inside word on how and why the primarily festival focused business of REVEL, has learned to adapt and innovate throughout while keeping the core values of connection and community front of mind. 

A huge thank you to Hilary McNevin for stepping into the host chair and yes, it won't be last time!

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For more information about the MOULD Collective, follow via the socials @mouldcheese

Check out GOOD TIME WINES website via the links below and follow on the socials @goodtimewines

Debuting with us at our Sydney Festival earlier this year Coolamon Cheese is one of the newest additions to our cheese community and we are stoked to have them with us.

Here I chat with cheesemaker, Jennifer Nestor who with many years of experience, and clearly a truly creative flair, she somehow manages to balance this with a traditional hands-on approach to cheese making.

One cheese we discuss in particular is the Merlot Flour brie which is in the September Cheese box. Yep. Flour made from dried Merlot grapes. See what I mean!

This is just one example of the many other interesting and creative cheeses coming out of Coolamon.

So let's get into it!

Today we chat to the team Long Paddock Cheese, Alison Lansley and Ivan Larcher.

Located in Castlemaine, Victoria, it is not only home to the production side of Long Paddock cheese but it is here that they have developed one of Australia’s first Cheese Schools ; Dedicated to offering a range of small-scale business-related education, as well as training for cheesemongers, regulators, home cheese makers and cheese lovers.

Alison, is a long time supporter of the Australian cheese industry and Secretary of the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers' Association (ASCA) and is the key driver behind the project.

Alongside her is Ivan Larcher, who is the key educator of the school and, of course, head cheesemaker at Long Paddock cheese. He shares some great stories of his journey from France to Castlemaine.

Long Paddock were set to make their debut at our Melbourne Mould Festival, however due to you know what you’ll have to wait a little longer to meet them face to face however, lucky for many of you listeners out there would have had the delightful opportunity to enjoy their cheeses in our recent Festival Cheese box. I was a big fan for sure and we know you will be too.

Let’s get into it.

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Learn more about the cheese school HERE

To wrap up our month of this month long celebration of Aussie Artisans, today I talk with amazing Rachel Needoba from the Butterfly Factory in Yarragon, West Gippsland.

Rachel’s story is a truly fascinating one filled with incredible anecdotes all wrapped in a love for all things gastronomy.

From the cheese side of things, you could say it escalated during her time in France, in particular Burgundy, where she met her husband, winemaker William Downie, which then brought her to create a home in Gippsland, and finally to establish her own brand, the micro dairy the Butterfly Factory, at the start of 2020 focusing on milk, yoghurt, butter (mmm, butter!) and of course cheese.

This was cheese production on a true small, artisan scale but from small things, big passions can come and thanks to the recent completion of her very own cheese factory on her farm, you can expect to see more and more exciting cheeses being produced here.

I’ve had the privilege of chatting with Rachel a number of times now and I’m so grateful we finally got the chance to record a chat and help share her story with you.  And, hopefully, even share some of her cheese with you in our monthly cheese boxes.

In the meantime, I’m going to leave a few links below of where to find her cheese as well as a video we did with Victoria Together celebrating Dairy in Gippsland.

Follow the Butterfly Factory Story ...

If in Victoria, you’ll find Rachel’s cheese at the Prom Coast Food Collective

LIVE GIPPSLAND Videos referenced in the interview which were supported by Victoria Together

Continuing with our month-long focus on Aussie artisans, today we speak with Sallie Jones from Gippsland Jersey from the heart of Victoria’s Dairy country in, you guessed it, Gippsland.

There is so much to love about the Gippsland Jersey story but it’s hard to summarise it better than the three core principals Sallie adheres to; Paying a proper price to farmers, a commitment to rural mental health and finally, kindness.

Those three core value principals truly are the foundation and key to the brands growth, success and dare I say almost cult like following in their local community and beyond. Seeing local supermarket shelves sold out of their milk is not an uncommon occurrence.

Look, there is no hiding the fact I love this part of Victoria seeing I moved to Gippsland just before the second lockdown in Melbourne back in May 2020. But there really is something special going on down here and across all aspects of agriculture, the arts and beyond.

You name it. It’s happening.

And it really is regional champions like Sallie, and businesses like Gippsland Jersey, that not only help drive the region forward, but do so with a genuine intent, care, and kindness, for their local community. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?

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Follow the Gippsland Jersey Story

Website: https://gippslandjersey.com.au/

Facebook: Gippsland Jersey

LIVE GIPPSLAND Videos referenced in the interview which were supported by Victoria Together

https://www.together.vic.gov.au/food-wine/live-gippsland

Continuing on with our month-long celebration of Aussie artisans, here i get to speak with the wonderful Kris Lloyd AM, one of the true greats of Australian Cheese.

After waking up one day and deciding to have a go at this whole ‘making cheese business’, Kris’s impact cannot be underestimated.

Handcrafting cheese in the picturesque Adelaide Hills, with a variety of milks from local dairies, this is all about making cheese that is uniquely Australian and down right delicious.

Numerous cheese awards aside, Kris herself was recognised last year in the Queens Birthday honours for her dedication to not just industry itself, but to education, communication and to tourism.

We are so lucky to have this chance to sit down with her to and talk us through how it all started. How she balances the creative and the business side of things (always precarious).

The importance of surrounding yourself with good people … and …  the exciting and hardworking world of Australian cheese.

This is a great one for all you budding artisan makers as it is a story of creativity, innovation and resilience.

Let's get into it.

Blessed may be the cheesemakers but let's not forget the cheese mongers who play an important role in advocating the artisan cheese community.

Today we catch up with the magnificent Penny Lawson, a self confessed avid cheese lover and owner of Potts Point’s favourite fromagerie, Penny’s Cheese Shop.

Penny has become a staple in the Australian cheese landscape having been in the industry for over 20 years. She also works as a cheese judge with the Australian Specialty Cheesemakers' Association and for those of you who’ve joined us at the Festivals, you would have seen her smiling facce behind many a stand helping out and spreading the good cheese word.

We finally got a chance to sit down and chat all things especially about the evolution of the Australian cheese, judging cheese, the important and vital role of the cheesemonger plays, as a provider, educator and advocate to cheese lovers, and what we can all do to support our growing cheese industry.

I should say as well, that for the entire month of August, we’re shining an even bigger spotlight on Aussie Artisans to celebrate #aussieartisanweek which is puled together by our mates at Pepe Saya. That week is August 16-22, 2021.

Supporting local artisans is paramount right now especially as NSW continues its difficult lockdown and Victoria and South Australia just come out of theirs.

Where you spend your food dollars really does make a difference.

Let’s get into it.