We started with 6 sheep and now have a thriving flock of 80 Friesland ewes that we milk twice a day through the spring and summer. Virtually the only ingredient in our cheese, is the high quality milk they produce which we use raw to try and bring a more distinctive product to the market.
All our ewes used have been bred and reared by us, they produce their lambs in early spring and we keep them grazing the rich pasture of the wye valley with their mothers for as long as we can. When they are old enough we take the lambs to the Forest of Dean where they graze Forestry Commission sites managed to protect rare butterflies.
The team work hard to make sure the sheep are happy and in return are rewarded with rich creamy milk that has sufficient character to speak for itself.
The cheese itself is made by hand by a mother and daughter team in our small on site dairy. Only produced in small batches during the summer it is made using traditional methods and pressed by hand using a 100-year-old cast iron cheese press. Valley drover is a Tomme style hard cheese with a mild creamy taste and nutty soft finish, matured after 4 months of careful turning and nurturing in our cheese cave cut out of the wye valley hillside.
Hancocks Meadow Farm is part funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
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