Doddington Dairy, Northumberland

First up was a walk around the production rooms and maturing rooms guided by the lovely Maggie! We were told all about how the farm came into existence and has built into the well renowned dairy farm it is now. She showed us their old wooden cheese press which has been there since the begining having been bought second hand from the Netherlands. She explained that the cows get milked first thing and the milk is brought straight up to production. If they start just half an hour later Maggie said they could taste the difference and it’s already started to lose flavour in such a short amount of time.

Once they’ve made an pressed the cheeses they get taken to the maturing rooms, possibly my new idea of Nirvana. The rows and rows of Doddington, Berwick Edge and Admiral Collingwood to name a few stretched around all the nooks and crannies of such old farmhouse buildings retrofitted purposefully to house the cheese.

We regularly stock Berwick Edge and Admiral Collingwood in the shop but even we were surprised when we found out that they age just a few rounds of each cheese up to 18 months. We absolutely fell in love with the older Doddington, which is saltly and cheddary with a pineappl-y tanginess. It lingered most of the visit and so we had to take some with us!

Finally we got to walk around the wider farm and visit the cows from which the much respected milk comes from. Maggie showed us the care and attention the animals get to ensure the best qaulity milk is produced. Of course we had to take some home with us. And so now we’ve got our three favourite cheeses from Doddington currently in stock.

We will most certainly visit them next time we’re in Northumberland.

They’ve also got a wonderful Milk Bar and Cafe that do the best milkshakes made with Ice Cream from the farm!