Watching the Royal tour of Canada unfold only goes to demonstrate this fact. Kate wearing a red maple leaf hat design and sporting a silver maple leaf broach (belonging to the Queen) etc. sends the right message to their hosts.
So it should be with weddings –a cake made out of whole cheeses is delicious, but when it is decorated in your chosen colours and the flowers compliment your table arrangements, or even bouquet, that is such a really special image!
Tuesday 27th July, the HRH Big Cheese team had a day out at the Nantwich Cheese Show in Cheshire. Everywhere you looked, in a marquee the size of one and a half football fields, there was cheese. More than 3,000 entrants from 24 countries – WOW! The UK is slowly becoming the Queen of cheese producing counties, with 700 varieties…
Quickes Traditional is one of everyone’s favourite cheddars; the family have been farming for over 450 years and their cheeses are regular winners at all the major cheese shows, both in the UK and abroad. Their Mature Cheddar was Supreme Champion at this year’s Devon County Show. 
A famous face in the crowds yesterday was retired English cricketer Darren Gough helping to promote Collier’s Welsh cheddar. The company built a cricket-themed pavilion in his honour at the show, where he also did a few cookery demos of his favourite cheesy recipes.
TAW Valley Creamery from North Tawton scooped a record 34 awards – 17 were gold in categories including mature Cheddar, vintage Cheddar and best South West cheese. Its red Leicester was awarded both Reserve Supreme Champion and UK Supreme Champion Cheese.
We had super day tasting all the cheeses – in fact, I think we were cheesed out!
The annual cheese rolling contest that takes place at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire had been called off on health and safety grounds after 15,000 people attended last year and officials feared for people’s safety.
But, you can’t stop ‘Cheese Rolling’ and despite the warnings, runners and spectators met at Cooper’s Hill yesterday to carry on the 200-year-old tradition in which competitors chase a 7lb wheel of Double Gloucester down a 200-yard incline. Chris Anderson six-time champion continued his winning streak with victory in two races and has joined a crusade of 11,000 people who are campaigning to bring back the event.
Wedding bells will be ringing in the ears of hundreds of couples as they prepare for their big day by visiting the Macdonald Alveston Manor Hotel Wedding Fayre this Sunday 18th October 2009, 11.00am -4.00pm – an inspirational experience to help plan The Big Day. Couples will be given the chance to see everything from a fashion show of designer dresses to Cheese Wedding Cakes all under one roof.
Our stand will be in the Blue Room where you can view our wonderful designs and see the Vogue cake on display, plus we are offering free cheese tasters too – yummy! The event is the perfect opportunity for local businesses, like us, to showcase our products and raise awareness of the important part we can play in the planning process for the big day.
Alveston Manor is a charming historic house with its own private gardens and elegant wedding function room - the perfect place to have your venue. Set in the heart of Shakespeare Country, it is rumoured that the first performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was seen here – under the cedar tree where you can have your photographs taken – how romantic!
To kick-off British cheese week (26th September – 4 October) we attended the British Cheese Festival, held at Cardiff Castle on Friday, with over 400 different cheeses on display it was a great place to meet the cheesemakers and taste the most amazing cheeses; ready to make the most amazing cheese wedding cakes.
Whilst at the cheese festival the awards were announced, so we thought it was only fair to let you in on a few:
- Best soft white – Little Wallop
- Best cheddar – Quickes Traditional
- Best new cheese – Moon Shine Farmhouse
It is great to see Quickes win the best cheddar in show, as for nearly 900 years their cheddar has enjoyed ’pride of place’ on the British cheeseboard. Sadly, our supermarkets are too short sighted to recognise this and are importing cheddar from aboard – apparently between January and June 2009 we imported 62,003 tons of cheddar. According to the Association of British Dairy Farmers, around 14 farmers are leaving the dairy industry each week – hopefully not the cheese makers.
British Cheese Week does exactly what is says and celebrates British Cheese and super supermarkets like Marks and Spencer’s are celebrating cheese week expanding its range of speciality cheeses to include award-winners.
Gloucestershire held its annual cheese rolling competition in fine weather this May Bank Holiday with contestants hurling themselves down the very steep Cooper’s Hill after an 8lb Double Gloucester cheese.
Cooper’s Hill is so steep it is impossible to stay on your feet; racers can reaches 70mph after the cheese so once the racing began the rolling antics were aplenty, head-over-heels falls were greeted by continual laughter from spectators – it was a fantastic day. The rolling and hurling was halted on three occasions while injured ‘cheese’ racers were carted off to hospital!
The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, but since it has a one second head start, the chances are slim, but this year local cheese chaser Chris Anderson took two of the cheese wins.
So is cheese rolling a true British extreme sport? With St John ambulance to hand and racers reaching such high speeds with no protective gear of any kind – the injuries ranging from sprained ankles to broken bones and concussions – with a rather cheesy reward at the end of it…. I think so!
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