Blue Cheese Maker Joins Northern Ireland's 'Green Army'

Mike Thomson, the Northern Irish blue cheese maker, is aiming to winhis first export sales in Europe. He's planning to follow the Northern Ireland football team in the forthcoming European Championships in France. "I am going to stock my van and sell my handcrafted blue cheese to the French in June," he says. A devoted football fan who once played centre back for a team in Belfast, he runs Mike's Fancy Cheese in Newtownards, County Down, an artisan business which has won critical acclaim for his handmade 'Young Buck' blue-veined cheese. His cheese is also listed by top restaurants and sold in delis in many parts of Northern Ireland. Thecheese, made from fresh milk sourced from a dairy farm near his small dairy, is now also sold in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. But not in other parts of Europe….yet! "I loved playing football but gave it up to develop a food business"he adds. "I am a huge Northern Ireland fan and have followed the team for years. Getting through to the championships in France is a marvellous achievement. I've got my tickets and will be part of the 'Green Army' in Nice, Lyon and Paris," he adds. "I'll be cheering the lads on and selling cheese at country markets I've identified inthe three centres. Contacts I've made are helping me to get pitches at the main markets. "Selling my blue cheese to the French would be something else, especially during our Year of Food and Drink in Northern Ireland. Itwill create awareness there among blue cheese lovers of my product and help them to develop a taste for Northern Ireland's Young Buck,"he adds. "I hope the team does well and that I'll be selling cheese into the final stages. I'll also be pitching my cheese, of course tofans from Poland, Ukraine and Germany in our group." He's got a wealth of experience of market trading from selling at farmers' events here and in the Republic and is part of a developingcluster of small artisan dairies now making cheese by hand in Northern Ireland. He set out to create a new local cheese more than five years' ago and turned to crowdfunding to raise the necessary cash to develop a stilton-style blue cheese, the first here to be made from raw-milk.Crowdfunding is an internet scheme that enables budding entrepreneurs to find small scale finance. He succeeded in attracted funding in excess of ?80,000 from interested individuals and this enabled him to set up a small cheese processing unit in Newtownards. "I looked to the banks for the start-up money I needed but found a general reluctance because I didn't have any security. I started looking at other sources and that's when I came across Seedrs, the crowdfunding website. This helped me to fund a small production unit and the processing equipment I needed to get the business started." Training at the School of Artisan Food in England and with experience gained working with cheesemakers there gave him the knowledge and skills to start crafting cheese here. That was in 2014. He also gained experience from Neal's Yard Dairy in London, one of Britain'sbiggest artisan cheese marketers, and from working on the extensive cheese counter at the Arcadia in Belfast, Northern Ireland's award winning deli. "During my time at the School of Artisan Food I had the opportunity to make cheese with some of the best cheesemakers in Britain, such as Joe Schneider at Stichelton and Jamie Montgomery at Montgomery's"he continues. "I reckon the time is right for me to score with cheese lovers in France. It's a huge market for handmade cheese. And there'll never be a better time for me. I'll be aiming to net some export sales from the heightened awareness of Northern Ireland that will surely result from the team's presence in the three centres throughout June," he adds.