[Jean:] Quite a long time I would have start probably with more than thirty years ago, because me Mum always make cheese and I just thought making when I was still a girl at the school and since we came here and farmed on me own behalf well twenty six years we've been making cheeses here.
[speaker002:] Is it all your own milk that you use for cheese?
[Jean:] Yes we have our own cows and its all our own milk.
[speaker002:] I've got a churn of milk. How do I go about making it into a cheese?
[Jean:] Well when it comes in from the cow it's at blood heat, and e you put it through your strainer and then you drain it and er you leave it be and it coagulates, goes consistency of yoghurt, slightly thicker than yoghurt, and after that stood a certain time you apply heat then you warm it up and you stir it, you break up the curd, and the whey gradually rises to the top and your curds settles to the bottom. And again you leave it standing a certain time and you pour off your whey and take your curd in to a muslin and er hang it up and again more whey'll drain off cos it's hanging up. And after a a certain period again you break up that curd and then you pack your curd into your er cheese cokes then and er apply pressure. It goes in the cokes mid-afternoon you leave that until next morning and take it out, put in a clean muslin and turn it back in the coke and more pressure until the next morning.
[speaker002:] It seems to be one of the things actually that people that are home on holiday to Orkney, you know, maybe you have lived here in the past and Orkney cheese is one of the things they want to take back with them, a farmhouse cheese.
[Jean:] Oh yes er a local people coming home always like to take farmhouse cheese away and Orkney people go on away on holiday again like to take ones off to their friends and relatives in the south too.
[speaker002:] Now I believe you're having your dairy overhauled at the moment. How how is this going to affect things?
[Jean:] It shouldn't really affect things er a lot it just makes things slightly more convenient. There's been a few small alterations. I had a dairy before, it's just been updated a wee bit because I make slightly more cheeses than I used to make and it'll make it er easier hopefully.
[speaker002:] What's your output of cheese?
[Jean:] The season of the year makes a difference, presently I'll be making approximately eight pounds probably everyday. That will increase very shortly I'll have more milk. It'll probably go up by another three, four pounds and then later on er when the cows goes up to the grass I'll be making not quite double probably, but er quite a lot more than I do now up to maybe fourteen, fifteen pounds in a day.
[speaker002:] How do you see things in the future then?
[Jean:] Things can change very quickly, but presently the demand is very good. In fact it's increasing the demand exceeds the supply at the moment.
[speaker002:] It's small round cheeses that you make. What's the reason for that?
[Jean:] They're very popular with the tourists, I think they feel they are taking back a whole cheese as opposed to a portion cut off a bigger cheese. And some of the markets that I supply, it's the hotel and restaurant trade that some of them go to, they like the small whole cheeses. They can put the whole cheese out on the cheeseboard, again I suppose to just a portion going on the cheeseboard. And I have packaging specially for the small ones, it makes them easy for people to post if they want to post them off to friends. They're quite safe in their own packaging. Tourists that take them back they have the label on the box to say where they have purchased this cheese. It's a an attraction I think as well. [tape change]