Curds, caves and creamy cheese: my visit to Westcombe Farm

Last week I took the 15-minute drive from our Operations site in Somerset to Westcombe Dairy – producers of some of the finest Cheddar Cheese, amongst other delicious products.

I wanted to catch up with Tom, a third-generation cheese producer who has led the charge at Westcombe when it comes to improving the flavour of their product. He has championed doing this by focusing on the crops they grow and the environment they build for their cows, as ultimately, if you start by improving the very beginning of the process, the outcome is going to be better – in Tom’s case, better tasting cheese.

My conversation with Tom was truly inspiring and it occurred to me that good cheese production requires a massive investment of time in an industry that waits for nobody. The work that Tom and the team at Westcombe are doing now, will take years to come to fruition – so the current financial climate is something they have to be incredibly mindful of.

Westcombe have invested in their infrastructure during a period of uncertainty, and I applaud their approach to farming. Planting a number of different herbal crops with far reaching root systems that were able to flourish during the dry, hot summer snap we recently experienced.

We want to support British farmers and producers for the long haul – giving them the confidence to invest in their production methods for the good of the climate, our health and the delicious taste of the food they work tirelessly to produce. Tom is just one of the great farmers who has already taken the initiative to invest in the planet, which may be costly to begin with, but brings nothing but benefits for his team, his animals, our customers, and the planet.