FARMHOUSE CHEESES: Penneshaw Kangaroo Island

It's known for its stunning beaches and coastal scenery. And for its produce grown in a clean unpolluted environment. Kangaroo Island is rapidly carving out a niche on the national and international food circuit, with a number of small producers churning out award winning products. Like Mos Howard at Farmhouse Cheeses near Penneshaw. Each morning and afternoon you'll find him here in the milking shed at the family property tending to a combined herd of Fresian and Aussie Reds. From here the milk is off to the nearby cheese factory for the next day's shift.

"Exceptionally fresh. We won't make cheese out of anything more than, see sort of about fourteen hours old. Yer it is. It's very fresh"

"And it is only your milk that you use in your cheese?"

"Absolutely"

"It's easier to control and that sort of thing, you know were you have been..so to speak"

"Yes"

From here it's pasteurised and taken to the cheesery and placed in stainless steel vats.

"It's very soft isn't it?"

"It is extremely soft"

Renert has been added to the milk to make it set. Cheese cultures and mould spores also go in. If you remember your nursery rhymes you'll remember this little mixture, it's whey, and here they tip the curds into containers. Now time and gravity do their bit. At Farmhouse Cheeses they make Brie and Camembert, soft, moist cheeses which are much quicker to make.

"The more you stir it the more whey comes out. And you'll try and make a really dry cheese where brie and camembert are fairly most cheeses so the chunks are quite large"

In fact a brie or camembert from cow to consumer can take as little as two days, whereas a cheddar can take as long as twelve months. After they've been drained and turned they're then placed in a saline solution.

"Now Lisa we're going to salt these cheeses and all we do is put them in this solution which is a twenty five percent brine solution and they stay in there for about an hour and that's how they get their salt ".

"So it just absorbs slowly into the cheese?"

"Yes, you actually get an effect where some of the salt goes in and some of the whey comes out"

Mos has always worked on the land but he finds this a lot less backbreaking and certainly cooler than his previous job working as a shearer especially here in the cold room.

"So Lisa, this is the mould growing room. This is where all the cheeses grow the mould on them from the very young to the very oldest. As they grow the mould gradually gets thicker and thicker".

The mould creates a chemical reaction with the cheese curd, ripening each from the outside. That's why a young camembert or brie is runny at the edge but very firm in the middle.

"Time will cure all"

"So the ideal time for eating a brie is?"

"Probably about five days, just before the best before date expires"

"Really, that close to it though?"

"Oh yer, even a week after is probably good"

"Really?"

"Yes"

And Mos should know. His product won the champion Fancy Cheese at the Sydney Royal Show and the inaugural Australian Grand Dairy Award for his White Mould cheese. The Farmhouse range is available at major supermarkets and the Central Market in Adelaide . For more information email info@postcards.sa.com.au