Neal's Yard Dairy

We buy cheese from about seventy cheesemakers from farms around Britain and Ireland. We sell this cheese in our two shops in London and to shops and restaurants all over the world. Our main aim is to keep in close contact with the cheesemakers and customers and above all to be in very close contact with all the cheese passing through our hands. We visit some cheesemakers very often; Bronwen, our cheese buyer and Jason, our sales director, select our Cheddars by visiting the West Country every eight weeks and tasting through young cheese to be matured further before sale. Besides allowing us to secure the best cheeses available, these visits also provide an opportunity for us to share information with the cheesemakers about how their cheeses are being received by our customers. Many of the cheeses we buy are either matured on the farm or in our own maturing rooms in Bermondsey, which are in brick railway arches under the main line from London Bridge to Dover. The insulation provided by the venerable Victorian brickwork helps us maintain good conditions for the cheese: humid and cool. A team of five take care of the cheese, turning them and sometimes brushing or washing them until they ripen. We choose the cheese for our shops from the arches in Bermondsey where they are stored to mature. This is how we keep in touch with all the variations which are a wonderful feature of farm cheese and also how we bring the best cheese that we can find back to our counters. When you buy in our shops you will be encouraged to taste and choose and we will do our best to give you any insights we have gleaned from the arches. We hope that we can ensure that the cheese you take home is what you expect and what you will most enjoy.