Tasty line-up for special Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival

A walk to the only farm in the world milking Northern Dairy Shorthorns is one of more than 30 events to be held during the celebration of local produce.

Low Riggs farm in Upper Nidderdale will be offering people a taste of "Stonebeck", the first raw milk Wensleydale cheese to be made on a farm in more than 60 years.

Sally and Andrew Hattan will make four tonnes of Stonebeck this year at a site in their farm yard, to complete their fourth year of production.

Cheesy-themed special menus will be a feature of the festival, served up at hotels and cafes, while the full range of local produce will be marked with events such as the "Gin Train" with Taplin & Mageean and Wensleydale Railway.

This year’s festival, in which businesses across the area hold special events, also sees the launch of "A Taste of the Dales", a map marking the locations of 50 local food and drink businesses in and around the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Sally Hattan, of Stonebeck, said: "For me the Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival is about giving people the opportunity to come and visit the farm. This time it felt right to offer a guided walk because then people can see the whole story the cows, the meadows and the cheese."

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Derek Twine, of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which organises the cheese festival, said: "The walk to Low Riggs for a taste of Stonebeck is definitely one of the highlights of this year’s festival. Farmhouse cheese making was a great tradition here until the 1950s. Now people such as Andrew and Sally are bringing about a revival, not least because they see it as the way to make their hill farm viable.

"We are so happy to celebrate once again cheese is being made on farms in the Yorkshire and Westmorland Dales. And their cheese tastes great, too.

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"The support from The Courtyard Dairy cheese shop near Settle, and Townend Farm Shop in Malhamdale, as well as Neal’s Yard Dairy, has made the revival possible. These businesses deserve credit alongside the cheese makers for creating one of the most exciting stories in upland farming and in food and drink.

Mr Twine added: “This year I especially want to highlight the new Taste of the Dales map. It is an all-year-round guide for people looking to find the amazing pubs, coffee shops, ice-cream parlours, and farm-to-table restaurants in and around the Yorkshire Dales National Park."

For more information about the events on offer, see www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/whats-on/cheese-festival-celebrating-local-produce/.