We decided that we wanted to become cheese makers in August 2014. This came after a chance reading of an article about a goats' cheese maker in an old copy of 'Woman and Home' magazine left behind in a villa we stayed in on holiday in Sicily. Rachel had been an English teacher for ten years, while Fraser had worked in project management for twenty years, but both of us were looking for a new challenge to inspire us.
We soon learnt about an initiative called Farm Step run by nearby environmental charity Earth Trust, where they offer tenancies on their land and barn space to agricultural business start-ups who are locked out by high land prices.
Both of us have farming in our family - Fraser's grandparents had a 200 acre farm in Nottinghamshire, and Rachel's parents farmed in South Wales in the 1970s, but cheese making and goat dairying are new family traditions. We are both passionate about high standards of animal welfare and sustainability in farming, as well as being part of reviving the British tradition of high quality artisan cheese making.
We sold our first ever cheese in March 2016 at a small market in South Oxford, but by the end of that year our cheeses were appearing on some of the best known cheese counters in the country.
