Traditional Cheese

Alongside our modern cheeserooms runs a traditional dairy, The Laurels, capable of reproducing time honoured, hand crafted favourites. 

Foreseeing the increase in demand for quality local food with provenance, Joseph Heler Cheese has invested in the Laurels dairy and supported skilled cheesemakers to enable us to produce a range of traditional cheese to meet this demand.

All the milk used in the Laurels dairy is sourced from our own single-herd Helton Holstein pedigree cattle, including our star Heifer, Clarissa.  Winners of numerous awards at Cheshire shows, our cows are looked after by our Farm Manager, Mark Thornton.

We make the following traditional cheese in the Laurels dairy;

Traditional White & Coloured Cheshire

The original White & Coloured Cheshire cheese - hand crafted to a recipe over 100 years old.

The Cheshire cheese produced in the Laurels dairy are all clothbound and made using a traditional recipe and techniques first used by Joseph Heler’s grandmother.  The cloth wrap forms part of the product’s preserving process and protects the cheese during storage.

Cheshire has a moist, silky texture with a slightly salty, milky mellow flavour.  Slightly more mature than those cheese produced in our modern cheesrooms, the Traditional Cheshire cheese has a natural rind that develops as the cheese matures.

Traditional Blue Cheese

Blue Cheshire, penetrated by mould during ageing, has a beautiful golden interior tinted with blue veins.  It is distinctively crumbly, creamy and rich, but milder in flavour compared to English Stilton, with a mellow piquant note.  Blue Cheshire has not been widely produced since the 1990’s, but recent demand for the cheese has spurred a revival.

Delicious on a ploughman’s, melted over field mushrooms or steak, blended in a sauce or simply served with fresh bread..

Hatherton

The hamlet of Hatherton is located 3 miles south-east of Nantwich with the river Weaver running near the western boundary of the parish.

Our Hatherton cheese is a delicious blend of milky, mild crumbly Cheshire cheese with a delicate sprinkling of fresh spring onions.

The onions are added into the vat during this hand-made process, which allows the chopped onion pieces to remain intact and visible.  It is then matured in the traditional way until it is cut into half moons and wrapped to keep it moist and fresh.

Hatherton is great crumbled over salads, used in sandwiches or simply served on a cracker.