Quicke's Traditional

The Quicke’s family have owned the land at Newton st Cyres, Devon for over fourteen generations. Employing over 40 staff from herdsmen and cheesemakers to finance and marketing, generation after generation they have toiled and tilled and tended, nurturing the ancient fields and woodlands, doing all they can to build a better farm, serve the village and create a beautiful place to live.

Spread out over 1500 acres of farm land and woodland, the Quicke’s family have adapted through Agricultural depression, war and competition to create some of the greatest, authentic clothbound cheddars in the world, using traditional recipes, time-honoured techniques and heritage starters passed down through the generations.

We have been making clothbound cheese for five generations, we use our years of experience and skills to distinguish the flavour profiles of our cheese, to capture the best expression of the grass, soil and seasons.

Every morning the cows are walked from the fields of Home Farm to the neighbouring dairy, where the fresh milk is transferred into large vats, and the starter culture is added. Next rennet is added to seperate the curds from the whey. After the curds settle, they are cut into blocks and turned by hand allowing the last remnants of whey to drain away, this process if called ‘cheddaring’.

Once the cheesemakers have cheddared the curd it’s carefully milled and a shake of Cornish Sea Salt is added then each cheese is wrapped by hand in muslin, allowing it to breathe as it matures, and placed on traditional wooden racks in the ‘nursery store’. After around three months the cheeses are moved from this higher humidity store, the ‘Cathedral of Cheese’ to continue on the ageing process. Here the clothbound truckles are turned every ten days to maintain an even texture as they mature for up to two years.

Once matured each wheel is graded by an external assessor, using a century-old grading scheme. Mary Quicke attends every grading and tastes all of the cheeses to make sure each new batch is as excellent as the last.

Visit the website and discover the full story www.quickes.co.uk