Connage Organic Gouda

Connage Organic Gouda is a creamy and well textured cheese that ranges from sweet and mild when young to a stronger and firmer textured cheese with a fuller flavour when mature.

The Connage Highland Dairy is a traditional family-owned, fully organic business, situated on the family farm at Ardersier. The farm was started by father Hamish Clark and continues to remain within the family; a family business in the true sense of the word, Connage is now owned by brothers Callum and Cameron together with their wives Jill and Eileen.

Callum and Jill manage the cheese side of the business using their years of experience and producing a fully traceable quality end product – multi award winning cheese. Cameron and Eileen undertake the majority of the work on the farm themselves, from breeding and managing the dairy herd to milking them.

The organic dairy herd consists of 150 cows, mostly Holstein Friesian with Jersey crosses and Norwegian Reds and they graze the luscious clover pastures around the dairy and along the shores of the Moray Firth thus producing the richest of milks used to make this award winning cheese.

During the cheese making process the organic milk is taken from the farms own dairy and piped in the cheese making room when salt and vegetarian rennet is added before being heated to the point of pasteurisation (72degrees centigrade) when the curds begins to develop and form. These curds are then washed and scalded as a true Gouda would be to allow the salt crystals to develop and give the cheese that much loved gritty texture and taste found in this 8 month old cheese.