IN the dairy of her Birdwood House farm, Melissa Ravenhill is up to her elbows in curds and whey. Having drained off the whey, she cuts the curds – looking like scrambled egg – into blocks and begins turning them over.
"This is the cheddaring process," she explains. "The bacteria are at their most active at this stage, producing lactic acid and turning the curds into cheese.
"This evening I will be putting the cheese, minced up with salt added as a preservative – into moulds and leaving them under a press equivalent to a ton and a half weight, squeezing out more moisture. Tomorrow they will be taken out of the moulds and left to mature – three months for the Dunlop, two months for the Double Gloucester."
Her Dunlop, a Scottish version of cheddar, last month won a medal at the National Cheese Awards. "I took my cheeses with those of neighbouring cheesemakers up to London on the coach," she says. "They included Charles Martell's Stinking Bishop, and I wanted to explain to other passengers that it wasn't me that was smelling.
"I was thrilled to win the medal. I didn't think they would give one to a newcomer like myself."
She and husband Jonathan came to the farm from Leicestershire 14 years ago. He looked after their 32 dairy cattle while Melissa ran a cheese shop on the premises.
"We could see the way things were going, so that you couldn't make ends meet with only a small herd like ours on present milk prices. It was obvious we should be using our own milk to provide added value.
"So a year ago we bought the equipment from a retired cheesemaker, and I used his Dunlop recipe as well. It's a softish cheese with a delicate flavour.
"It hasn't the harshness of an old cheddar. Some people have a macho preference for strong cheeses – cheese louts, we call them. The Double Gloucester could be left longer, but most customers prefer the gentler flavour of a younger cheese."
Her customers are those attending fortnightly farmers' markets at Devauden, Usk and Stroud and the monthly market at Cirencester. Having closed the shop, she finds it more profitable to sell direct.
"The customer gets the cheese cheaper and the producer gets more return on their work." She sells so much, in fact, that she hasn't at the moment enough to sell wholesale.
"I make cheese twice a week, using the equivalent of three milkings. At the moment I'm making 200 to 250 pounds of it a week – you get around a pound of cheese per gallon of milk.
"I ought to get up to 300lbs or so a week, but I don't want to get too big. It's hard enough work already!"
The Dunlop is waxed to provide a golden rind for better preservation. The Double Gloucester in cheese-cloth produces its own protective mould on the outside.
Stacked in the temperature-controlled storage bay, they are things of beauty – ranging from 12lb monsters to 2lb roundels. Melissa is clearing the house cellar for future storage purposes. "They tell me it was the village air raid shelter in the last war," she laughs. "Anyway, it's got just the right constant temperature and humidity."
•Melissa will be providing Forest Food Festival cheese tastings at the Dean Heritage Centre's Apple Day on Sunday 24th and the Cinderford farmers' market in the Miners Welfare Hall on Saturday 30th.