The secrets of cheese making have been passed down for thousands of years, each generation refining and perfecting.
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Jon Healey, Pyengana Dairy owner, comes from a family tradition of cheese making stretching back over 100 years, and also learnt the craft from a thousand-year-old tradition in the Swiss Alps.
“I went up into the Alps on a summer farm and learnt how to make a Swiss mountain cheese. We milked our own cows and stored the cheese in a cellar under the ground at the chalet, which was fantastic for me because it was a tradition that was a thousand years old,” Mr Healey said.
The fifth generation to run the dairy farm, Mr Healey decided the key to success for Pyengana was to diversify into the cheese making business, and has built a name for the company for their fine products.
Mr Healey takes a holistic approach to cheese making, believing that good cheese starts long before it hits the vats.
“Pyengana’s belief is that good cheese starts with great milk and great milk comes from very healthy soils, which grows good quality grass,” he said.
Mr Healey also ensures his cows are happy and stress free. The cows are milked with a robotic system that they come and go to as they please when they need milking.
“We believe that allows us to harvest a better milk because the cow’s let down is triggered by hormones and the hormone development can be affected by stress and we believe our system is very low stress,” he said.
“What we end up with is a really healthy milk. That allows us then to take really great milk into the factory and to make a really pure product with it.”
Over 100 years ago, on the same farm Mr Healey works on today, his forebears made cheese in much the same way.
We’re still using the open vats that they used a hundred years ago and the method is exactly the same.
- Jon Healey, Pyengana Dairy owner
The cows would have been milked by hand, and there would have been no pasteuriser, but beyond that the cheese making process is unchanged.
“We’re still using the open vats that they used a hundred years ago and the method is exactly the same. The cheese hoops and the way we put the cloth on the outside of the cheese and our cellaring of the cheese is exactly the same, for Pyengana if you took pasteurisation away and were using your own factory derived starter culture then there would be no difference,” Mr Healey said.
Still a family farm, Mr Healey’s wife Lyndall is also vital to the business. Together they manage their herd of around 500 cows, their production and business.
Their success proves family and tradition really are a winning recipe.
