THE MOULD CHEESECAST THE MOULD CHEESE COLLECTIVE

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.
We also touch on the regulations in New Zealand in regard to Raw milk production, what their customers think and what it means to be a true artisan producer.

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.
For us, we’re grateful for it as the proof of this is in the cheese. it’s down right delicious.

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
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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.
Add to that he dips into his sommelier roots and talks cheese, wine and drinks matching as well as his new project, GOOD TIME WINES which is all about wine in fun, 150ml cans made by awesome winemakers. 

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
https://www.goodtimewines.com/ 

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.

Located in the heart of the Riverina, in NSW, there is a real sense of community, creativity and curiosity at the heart of Coolamon cheese.

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

Links about the cheese school below!
Australia's first 'university of cheese' is open for curdling

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 ...
Instagram: @butterflyfactory_gippsland
Facebook: Butterfly Factory Gippsland

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
https://www.together.vic.gov.au/food-wine/live-gippsland
Also follow on the socials at @livegippsland