The secret behind Hunter Belle’s award-winning cheese, is exceptional quality milk and a family’s longstanding passion for dairy.
With his father a sixth-generation dairy farmer who milked cows along the banks of the Hunter River, Jason Chesworth’s family lives and breathes dairy.
After his parents were forced to sell their much-loved dairy due to the drought in 2007, it wasn’t long before their passion prevailed, and they were back in business – albeit down a slightly different avenue.
They bought Hunter Belle Cheese when it was only a very small operation, and Jason left the corporate world to pursue his family legacy.
“We’re very passionate about dairy, it’s obviously entrenched in our genetics. It’s now just in a different form,” Jason said.
“Rather than getting up early to milk cows every morning, I’m getting up early to receive milk from the farm.”
This milk is produced by the one herd of happy, grass-based Brown Swiss cows in Singleton that have serviced Hunter Belle right from the beginning.
“We have a very long and important connection with the Wake family, who we get our milk from. Max, who is now in his 70s, showed Guernsey cows with my grandfather back in the 1960s,” Jason said.
The nature of the breed, along with the way they are nurtured by the Wake family, makes their milk quite unique.
“In cheese making, it’s the fat percentage in the milk that’s responsible for cheese yield, but it’s the protein that’s responsible for flavour. We find that with the Brown Swiss milk, the fat to protein component ratio is perfect for cheesemaking.”
Hunter Belle produces two ranges of cheese – their flavoured cheddar range, which is born from Australia’s love of a good cheddar, and their gourmet handmade cheeses.
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