Artisan cheese business gears up to develop sales outside Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland business Leggygowan Farm Cheese is quadrupling production of handcrafted goat's cheese following an extensive investment in milking and processing facilities.

The company this week completed development of a new milking parlour and a state-of-the-art cheese room to enable to meet the growing demand from delis and restaurants across Northern Ireland for its white semi-soft and blue goat's cheeses.

In addition, the artisan business, based on a family farm at Saintfield in county Down, has increased the size of its own herd of mostly Saanen goats.

The additional milk from the increase in herd size is expanding production of goat's cheese to two batches per week with over 300 litres being processed from the 75 litre process prior to the investment in new milking and processing facilities on the 20-acre family farm.

Adam Kelly, who formed the artisan cheese business in 2010 with his brother Jason, says the expansion gives the company scope to meet growing demand in Northern Ireland and also to respond to approaches from potential customers in Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

"We've had to make this investment quickly to enable us to respond to the growing interest in goat's cheese in Northern Ireland and further afield.

"When we launched the cheese in 2010 we expected that it would take quite a while to build sales. We reckoned that progress would be slow but steady. However we've been stunned by the scale of the interest in goat's cheese from chefs and leading delis and found difficulty in meeting the demand.

"We just had to accelerate our plans and to bring forward the investment in new milking and processing facilities.

"These facilities allow us to produce a more consistent product and slight tweaks to the white curd recipe have resulted in a creamier cheese with a fresh and tangy taste that we believe will appeal to those seeking a distinctive goat's cheese but without an overpowering aroma. There's still an aroma but it's not as strong as from some of our competitors' products.

"We are finding that our cheese is now being included on menus by leading chefs here. We've also benefited from the support of several leading delis in Northern Ireland. We are now able to supply them regularly with the cheese and to explore other opportunities particularly in Britain and the Republic. We've had many inquiries from both markets through our website and by social media.

"We are probably Northern Ireland's only real farmhouse cheese business."

Both the blue and white goat's cheeses are produced in 1kg blocks. The blue cheese is matured over a five-week period. The white cheese is supplied to customers after two days to ensure freshness.