Diary of a Shopkeeper, 7th August

It’s not just me who gets excited about Westray Wife…

For anyone who’s been hiding under a slab of cheddar for the past few years, Westray Wife is a farm cheese made by Jason and Nina Wilson at Noltland. Almost all farm cheeses these days are young, fresh and – to varying degrees – crumbly. Grimbister is probably the best known, and is unfailingly popular. Russell’s cheese is also delicious and has a strong local following. It’s reliably squeaky.

Burnside was launched just over a year ago and is already a favourite. Cheesemaker Barry Graham is creative when it comes to finding ways to cook with it. He goes way beyond the well-trodden approach of ‘bread it and fry it’ to recommend all kinds of imaginative preparations. He suggests Burnside is an ideal replacement when a recipe calls for halloumi or paneer. He’s even experimented with puddings, including one that involved sprinkling with sugar and cinnamon, grilling, and serving with some berries. A kind of French toast made of cheese. What’s not to like?

The Wilsons of Westray also make a fresh cheese available in cutting blocks as Noltland Castle, and in round, cloth-hung, slightly firmer forms as Cannonball. The names reflect the Wilsons’ proud role as key-holders for that castle, just across the road from their dairy.

The name Westray Wife is one that makes sense to Orcadians but puzzles many visitors. No, the Wife is not the woman who makes the cheese. And no, the Wife is not an example of outdated patriarchal nomenclature. The Westray Wife is of course the stone-carved Neolithic figurine of a woman – which is all that ‘wife’ means – discovered at the Links of Noltland in 2009. It has the distinction of being the earliest representation of a human figure ever found in Scotland, and features the earliest portrayal of a face from anywhere in the UK.

The cheese and the figurine have more in common than a name and an origin near beautiful Grobust beach. Both are exceptionally well-made, displaying great skill and finesse. In the Wilsons’ case, these skills were acquired over several years as they worked at various farms and dairies across Scotland and England. This culminated in a stage at the Loch Arthur Camphill Community near the wonderfully named village of Beeswing, west of Dumfries. Cheese lovers will know that Loch Arthur is one of the country’s greatest cheddar-style cheeses. Like Loch Arthur, Westray Wife is an organic cheese. And it’s made entirely from milk from the Wilsons’ own small herd of Ayrshires.

Something that differentiates it from other Orkney cheeses is that it’s a washed-rind cheese. This technique involves cheesemakers literally mopping or brushing their newly made cheeses with a salt brine, aromatised with ingredients, which can include brandy, wine, beer, or herbs. The result is that the rind is colonised by pungent, pinky-orange bacteria, developing complex flavours – usually not as strong as the smell would lead you to expect.

Soft versions include the French classic Époisses, and Stinking Bishop from Gloucestershire. Hard versions include famous Alpine cheeses from either side of the French/Swiss border, including Gruyère and Beaufort. It’s these Alpine classics that Westray Wife is closest to in style: firm but pliable in texture, with flavours ranging from grassy to creamy to nutty.

If I seemed over-excited, it’s because we’ve had an unusually long wait for the Wife this year. The Wilsons decided to change the calving time for their herd from late December to April. And of course the calves get first call on the milk. So it was only in May that they were able to start making cheese again, and only in late July that Westray Wife had matured sufficiently to be released.

Is it worth the wait? It certainly is. Make the most of it while you can, because the Wilsons report that demand is higher than ever, both here and in prestigious shops and restaurants south. Like all seasonal products, Westray Wife has an ending as well as a beginning – and it always comes too soon!

PS I don’t talk about Orkney Cheddar above, as I’m focussing on farm cheese. Cheddar will be considered in a future diary…

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 10th August 2022. A new one appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions.