Anna Rubingh - Traditional Cheese Dairy

Photography & words: © Anna Rubingh

Recipes: Philippa Vine

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On their third-generation dairy farm in Waldron, East Sussex, the Delves family handcrafts a selection of award-winning handmade cheeses, using free-range, raw milk from their own farm.

It had always been a long-held dream of Andy Delves to make cheese using milk from his own East Sussex family farm. It was only after his retirement that dream became reality. “In 2021 we were able to acquire The Traditional Cheese Dairy,” he says. Andy’s son had taken over running the family farm. “We relocated operations, originally situated in Stonegate, to our own dairy farm in Waldron, where our family has been milking cows since 1962.” By moving the cheese dairy to their farm, they have added a uniqueness that is entirely their own.

Fresh creamy raw milk flows directly from the milking parlour to the cheese dairy where Andy and his nephew Ben Cottingham, who runs the cheese dairy, immediately turn it into one of their five different varieties of handcrafted cheese.

"We have a grass-based production system with high animal welfare that embraces traditional farming methods, nurtures the land and hedgerows and encourages a unique ecosystem by working in harmony with nature. Our family and everyone who works on our farm, are grazing advocates and the animals’ freedom, health, and quality of life is paramount. It is the heart and soul of our business and we believe it is vital for the future health of our species and our planet.”

And you can taste that vision in their artisanal cheeses such as Burwash Rose, Goodweald Smoked, Lord of the Hundreds, Scrumpy Sussex and Olde Sussex, each of which has its own unique characteristics, shape & flavour.

With two recipes by recipe writer and cook Philippa Vine