Goldfields Cheese
If you’re anything like me and your holy grail is the ultimate locally made, French-style creamy white mould cheese (as opposed to a dirty old chalice with mystical powers hidden somewhere in the Middle East); you’re in luck. In a small cheesery, in an old abattoir, situated in an unassuming corner of Alfredton, Nardia and Andrew Keene are hiding one of Ballarat’s best-kept secrets.
Goldfields Farmhouse Cheese began the way all good passion projects do, with a whole lot of passion, a little bit of kismet and a pretty decent helping of very, very hard work. While Andrew Keene had always wanted to run his own business, Nardia decided she wanted to be a cheese maker after doing a one-day cheese-making class.
Being specialists in Food Technology and Microbiology/Molecular Biology respectively, the couple felt like they had the knowhow to give it a red hot go, but after a few years of procrastinating and talking about the dream of having their own artisan handmade cheese factory, the arrival of their second child was the final push they needed. The couple produced their first commercial batch of cheese in October 2005 and they’ve been making dreamy, creamy, artisan cheese in Ballarat ever since.
Talking to the couple makes it pretty clear that despite the aforementioned procrastination, making cheese is what they were put on this earth to do, “I love to feed people, I love science and I love being creative,” Nardia explains, “cheese making combines all these elements. It’s science to get milk from a liquid into a solid, but it’s artistic skill and creativity that makes the cheeses into something delicious to eat.”
“I love cheese. I love to just eat it as it is, but I also love to cook with it. Cheese is such a nutritious and versatile foodstuff, which is why it has been part of the human diet for more than 7000 years.”
And the passion that they both show for real, artisanal cheese is hard to ignore as Nardia explains why their particular cheese is so darn special, “Our milk is single source and is produced by a single breed of dairy animal which is reflected in the flavour of the cheese. We make our cheese to demonstrate our region’s terroir (flavour of the soil). The cheeses are handmade, using traditional techniques that allow seasonal variation. Many of the imported cheeses, the ones people assume are being handmade by an old cheese-making couple in the countryside of France, are actually manufactured in big stainless steel factories with conveyer belts moving everything. These cheeses are only touched by humans at the wrapping stage and sometimes, not even then.”
“All our milk comes from local farms and we are conscious of our food miles, which is why we concentrate on selling our cheeses within our region. Having cheeses made from animals of a single breed enables people to taste the difference between milks. Milk is not just milk. The (different varieties of milk) differ in taste, smell and flavour, which in turn makes our cheeses unique.”
“We source our milk from three farms. Each farm has a different breed of dairy animal (Friesian-Holstein cows, Jersey cows and Goats). We don’t mix the milk and we don’t standardise the milk either, so the cheese always tastes of a time and a place. With the exception of stirring, everything we do is done by hand.”
According to the Keenes, it is this personal touch that makes all the difference, “We use traditional (cheese making) methods but are always tweaking them to suit our milk and equipment to make the best tasting cheese that we can. At the same time, we strive to make cheeses that are different to those already in the market. I don’t want to be a maverick, but I do want to make the best cheese people have ever tasted. That is what I am striving for every time I make a batch of cheese.”
So, how does one achieve this (very modest) aspiration, of making the best cheese one has ever tasted… it’s “pretty simple”, Nardia claims, “After the milk has been pasteurised, we add a starter culture and allow them to ripen (meaning that the bacteria start to grow), rennet is added to turn the milk from a liquid into a solid. The solid is the curd which then gets cut and stirred (maybe heated if we are making a hard cheese) over a period of time. The whey (the liquid) is then drained away and the curd is placed into baskets that form the cheese’s shape, which then continue to drain overnight. The next day, the cheeses are salted, before being placed into the maturing room for maturation ranging from two weeks to 18 months.”
“We went into it with what we thought was a good amount of cheese-making knowledge and sound scientific know-how and skills. But like many crafts, you learn more and more the longer that you practice your art and realise just how little you really knew when you started!”
If, like Nardia, you’ve long harboured the secret desire to be an artisanal cheese maker, the couple also run the occasional cheese-making workshop (check out their website for upcoming dates!) for the general public to come and try their hand at the art of curds and whey, “The (workshops) are good fun.” Nardia assures us, “Although sometimes I think that I have more fun than the students. They attract a range of people: men and women, younger and older. The one thing that everyone has in common is an interest in food, where it comes from and how it is made.”
“We start with an overview. I describe what we are doing and how the whole process works, a bit of basic science. Then we get stuck in and make the cheese. It is fully hands-on, so the participants start with milk and end the day with a cheese that is ready to salt and mature. Some people are surprised though, that it’s not ready to eat that afternoon.”
I’ll probably leave the cheese-making in the hands of the experts, but I, among many of my compatriots, do consider myself to be an expert in one area of the cheese world; cheese-eating. And without us very important cheese eaters, the Keenes would be out of a job. Nardia credits the changing attitude toward food in Australia as one of the biggest factors in the success of their business. “There has been an explosion of interest in food and wine (in Australia) in the past 30 years. I think people want to get back to more real food, less processed and want to know where it comes from and how it is made.”
So, according to Nardia, making cheese is simple and Australians love to eat cheese, sounds like a dream job, match made in heaven. Why aren’t we all making fancy artisan cheese then? Are there any struggles in the artisan cheese-making industry?
“I think that climate change is the biggest challenge we face (globally) in food production, making some fertile lands that were originally very sustainable, totally unusable.” Says Nardia, “But for me personally, it’s the consumer perception that imported cheeses are better (than Australian cheeses) and it is a big challenge to convince them that Australian cheese is just as good. This perception is reinforced by high profile cheese importers and cheese mongers who are selling high production low cost cheeses at significantly inflated prices.”
“Australian cheeses have competed with and beaten European cheeses in international competitions. Australian artisan cheese makers are making a wide range of delicious and interesting cheeses. In July I attended the tasting day for the dairy section of the Australian Fine Food Awards where there was a wide range of cheese from Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. The different textures, flavours and variety were impressive. We are making some really fabulous cheeses in Australia.”
The couple are almost as passionate about our little slice of heaven here in Country Victoria as they are about their cheeses… “Andrew (is) from Melbourne and I am a Bendigo girl. We moved here for Andrew’s work then stayed to set up a business because we liked it,” Nardia explains, “My favourite thing about Ballarat is the climate. Every season has its own beauty. The best-kept secret is the fabulous food producers in this area. Many people in Ballarat don’t realise how much fabulous food is grown and produced by dedicated people in and around Ballarat.”
So excuse me while I settle myself down with a big chunk of Warrenheip White, a loaf of Basilio Sourdough and a glass of Eastern Peake Chardonnay and congratulate myself on being one of the special few who’s in on the secret.