SCA Visit 2026
A visit to the Specialist Cheese Association AGM at Quicke’s.
Two days. Hundreds of cheeses. Some of the best cheesemakers in Britain. And more notes than we could fit in a notebook.
This year, Beth and I made a promise to ourselves: get off the farm more.
With milk prices where they are, adding value on farm is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. For us, that journey has meant expanding our coffee shop deliveries and throwing ourselves into cheesemaking.
But we don’t just want to make cheese—we want to make exceptional cheese.
For the last couple of years I’ve chipped away at it whenever time has allowed, usually after a full day’s farming. We’ve made plenty of cheeses we’ve been proud of… and a few we’d probably rather forget. That’s all part of learning.
Whether it was our first blue cheeses sinking into pancake-shaped disasters, or batch after batch of Brie whose rinds slipped away and left the insides oozing across the table, we’ve certainly had our fair share of failures.
Every disaster has taught us something, and little by little those lessons have started turning into better cheese.
Most of what we’ve made has been Camembert and Caerphilly, but whenever we’d visit a good cheesemonger I’d be blown away by the complexity and flavour of cheeses like Tunworth, Baron Bigod and Gorwydd Caerphilly. You taste them and wonder, how do they make something this good? The differences aren’t always obvious, but they’re definitely there.
That’s where the Specialist Cheese Association (SCA) came in.
The online resources alone have been hugely valuable, but the biggest learning has come from meeting other cheesemakers in person, touring their dairies and seeing first-hand how they approach their craft.
The best thing about artisan cheese?
Everyone’s a certified cheese nerd.
You can ask what feels like the simplest question or dive into something incredibly technical, and nobody makes you feel out of place. Everyone genuinely wants to help. From day one, that’s something Beth and I absolutely loved about the artisan cheese world.
The network the SCA has created is second to none, with cheesemakers, dairy technologists and industry specialists all willing to share their knowledge.
This year’s AGM was being held at Quicke’s in Devon. It was quite a journey from Mid Wales, but far too good an opportunity to miss. As an added bonus, Trethowan Brothers had kindly offered tours of their dairy to anyone travelling down.
Considering we think they produce one of the finest Caerphilly cheeses in the country, there was never any doubt we’d be stopping.
We were welcomed by Ben, who immediately made us feel at home before taking us through their entire process in incredible detail—from milk handling and storage right through to producing Gorwydd Caerphilly and Pitchfork Cheddar.
One thing that immediately caught our attention was their use of Victorian cheese presses for the Caerphilly… just like our own! Except they had an entire room full of them.
Those presses rely on skill and experience rather than simply pressing a button, so it was fascinating to talk through the small adjustments that can completely change the finished cheese. Seeing another dairy using equipment so similar to ours gave us a real sense that we’re following a traditional path that’s still very relevant today.
Beth and I left inspired, with pages of notes, plenty of questions about our own cheesemaking and, perhaps surprisingly, a growing confidence that we’re already paying attention to many of the small details that matter.
There are still plenty of improvements to make, but maybe—just maybe—we’re on the right track.
After tasting what felt like our own bodyweight in cheese, we continued further south, ready for an early start at Quicke’s the following morning.
As you’d expect from someone so passionate about farmhouse cheddar, Mary Quicke greeted us with endless energy before introducing us to fellow cheesemakers and taking us out onto the farm.
The sun was beating down on another scorching day, and the cows were making the most of what grass remained on Quicke’s beautiful red sandy soils. Looking across the fields felt strangely familiar—the same dry conditions we’re seeing back home at Newbridge. Let’s hope we all see some rain before too long.
Quicke’s runs both a spring-calving and an autumn-calving herd, with milk from both combined to create a more consistent balance of butterfat and protein throughout the year.
It’s another reminder that great cheese starts long before you reach the cheese vat.
Later in the day we toured the dairy itself.
The scale, precision and attention to detail were simply incredible. Quicke’s reputation hasn’t happened by accident. It starts with passionate people, generations of experience and an endless drive to keep improving.
Each truckle weighs around 25kg, and the maturing rooms hold thousands of them.
Open the maturation room door and you’re met by cool air carrying the unmistakable smell of ageing cheddar—earthy, buttery and deeply savoury. Stretching away in every direction are row upon row of carefully stacked truckles, quietly doing what only time can achieve.
Standing there, you realise you’re surrounded by millions of pounds’ worth of cheese, all patiently waiting for their moment.
It really brings home how much patience goes into producing exceptional cheddar. Some of those cheeses won’t be ready to enjoy for many months even years yet.
The afternoon moved into the technical sessions, covering one of the biggest learning curves Beth and I have faced over the last couple of years: HACCP.
Hearing different specialists discuss food safety, risk management and cheesemaking was incredibly valuable.
We also spent time looking at acidification during cheesemaking.
One thing that surprised us was learning that pH isn’t treated as the food safety silver bullet we had assumed. It’s still hugely important for producing consistent, high-quality cheese, but the science behind food safety is more complex than simply hitting a target pH.
One of our biggest takeaways was how much safe cheesemaking comes from consistently applying good practice throughout the entire process. That’s something Beth has worked incredibly hard on over the last six months, so it was reassuring to hear it reinforced by so many specialists.
Later that afternoon came what was probably the most entertaining session of the whole event…
Cheese speed dating.
Newcomers sat alongside long-established cheesemakers, each with just seven minutes to present their cheese, explain what they were trying to achieve and receive honest feedback before moving on to the next table.
Some cheeses were praised. Some were picked apart. Every single maker walked away with pages of ideas.
It sounded brutal…
But it was brilliant.
Listening to experienced cheesemakers discuss flavour, texture, acidity, rind development and tiny recipe adjustments showed just how many variables make every cheese unique.
Beth and I both walked away thinking exactly the same thing.
“That’s where we want to be next year.”
So that’s the goal.
Next year we’d love to put two of our own cheeses on those tasting tables and hear what some of Britain’s best cheesemakers really think.
After two packed days we headed home with notebooks full of ideas, new contacts and even more enthusiasm for where our own cheesemaking journey might take us.
Every visit like this reminds us that great cheese isn’t made through shortcuts. It’s made through curiosity, attention to detail and never believing you’ve finished learning.
If our cheeses continue improving year after year, weekends like this will be a huge part of the reason why.
We’ve got a lot of work to do before next year’s AGM.
But that’s half the fun.