Page 19 - IAV Digital Magazine #439

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Mouldy Hay Bale Discovery Leads To New NZ Cheese
By Adriana Weber
A discovery in a mouldy bale of hayhasledtoa new type of cheese its makers hope will put New Zealand on the map.
Whitestone Cheese, a family- run business based in Oamaru, has discovered a new, local blue mould culture.
Chief executive Simon Berry said he spent about six months trying to find a version of Penicillium roque- forti, originally found in limestone caves in France.
He and his head cheesemaker set out to swab similar caves in Otago, and had come close to calling it quits when they received a timely
phone call.
"The lab that was processing our swabs became aware of our proj- ect, and a few months later when we'd almost given up, they rang up and said, 'hey I've had a roqueforti come up on some hay at a farm.
"Turns out a beef farmer at Shenley Station was con- cerned with some funny looking mould in their hay- lage ... and lo and behold it was blue mould!
"So we had that isolated, had it all tested and cleared, sent it to labs in Germany and all around New Zealand to make sure it's OK to bring into cheese.
"It's had the all
clear, and we've just started our first commercial batches."
Mr Berry named the cheese Shenley Station Blue, after the farm it was found on.
He said the cheese had a dif- ferent taste to most commercially available blue cul- tures.
He hoped the find would put New Zealand in the international spot- light.
"We'll also enter it in the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin next year and show the cheese world ... 'this is what we found down here in New Zealand'."
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