– Cais
– Irish Cheese Awards
– Artisan Cheese Awards (UK)
– Bord Bia
Cáis – The Association of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers
Cáis is the organisation that represents the interests of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers. The following is taken from their website. Cáis
“During the late 1970’s a few enterprising dairy farmers commenced making farmhouse cheese. For at least a quarter of a century before this, cheese-making in Ireland had been exclusively confined to large scale factory production mainly concentrating on cheddar production and mainly owned by the dairy cooperatives. One exception to this was a small-scale production operated by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mosy at Lough Glynn in Co. Roscommon. However, even they had ceased producing cheese by the late 1970’s.
By 1983 there was a small number of farmers successfully producing a range of cheeses. The National Dairy Council, which had responsibility for promotion of dairy produce in Ireland, realised the potential of Farmhouse cheese production and facilitated the forming of the Irish Farmhouse Cheese-makers Association in 1983 and helped its development in the earlier years.”
The following are members of Cáis.
Ardsallagh Goat’s Cheese, Ballymaloe Cookery School, Barba Goat Farm, Béal Organic Cheese, Bellingham Blue, Bluebell Falls, Bó Rua, Burren Gold, Cahills Farm Cheese, Cais na Tire, Carlow Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigaline Farmhouse Cheese, Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers, Coolacork Cheese, Coolattin Cheddar , Coolea Farmhouse Cheese, Cooleeney Farm, Corleggy Cheese, Derg Cheese, Dozio’s of Mayo, Durrus Farmhouse Cheese, Fermoy Natural Cheese, Galway Goat Farm, Gubbeen Farmhouse Cheese, Killeen Farmhouse Cheese, Knockalara Farmhouse Cheese, Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese, Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese, Macroom Buffalo Cheese, O’Briens Farmhouse Cheese, Old MacDonnell’s Farm, The Little Milk Company, Velvet Cloud/Rockfield Dairy, Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese
To visit the Cáis website click on the link below
Irish Cheese Awards
The Irish Cheese Awards take place every two years. The last awards were judged in 2019 and the Awards presented at a grand dinner in Cork. Killeen’s Mature Goats Cheese was the Supreme Champion. For a list of all the award winning cheeses click on the link below.
Artisan Cheese Awards (UK) 2019
Irish cheeses were particularly successful in last year’s Artisan Cheese Awards. Hegarty’s Templegall was runner-up to the Supreme Champion and also won Best Small Producer Award, Best Irish Cheese Award and was Winner of the Hard Cheese Class.
Killeen Mature Goat Cheese won the Goat’s Cheese Class, Durrus Og the Semi-Soft Cheese Class and Bluebell Falls’ the Flavoured Cheese Class with their Goat’s Cheese with Honey, Garlic and Thyme.
In all Irish cheeses won 4 of the 16 classes, received 5 Highly Commended Awards, won 8 Gold Awards, 19 Silver Awards and 18 Bronze Awards.
Bord Bia
“Bord Bia is an Irish state agency with the aim of promoting sales of Irish food and horticulture both abroad and in Ireland itself.”
Bord Bia does much to support Irish Cheesemakers both in Ireland and with exporting. They produced the last major study of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers ten years ago in 2010 downloadable here. Irish Farmhouse Cheese Booklet
Click on the link for their website. Bord Bia