How my Shed became the Hub of a Cheese Empire, delivering fabulous Westcountry cheeses to all corners of the land. How I became Bovey Tracey's Leading Shed-Based Virtual Cheesemonger. No, really.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

The lengths we'll go to ...


I had this call from Charlie at Innocent Drinks. They were having a cheese tasting club and could we help? Well, we like what Innocent do, so we didn't want to say no ... despite very short notice and our not having all the cheeses in stock (Charlie was keen to use cheeses from her native Somerset).

We arrived at a list of cheeses (and were one short - but I reckoned we could meet the order if I took a run into Ticklemore Cheese in Totnes to get some Keens Cheddar. That way, we'd have everything we needed and the order could go out the next day. Like I say: time was short!

Into the Figaro and off to Totnes, but got stuck in a big jam halfway, so turned around and went through the lanes (detour 1). If you know Devon lanes you'll know that you really don't want to do this sort of detour - unless you really have to. Several miles of winding narrow lanes later and I'm in Totnes. Into Ticklemore to get the Keens from Sarie, then set off home. Just past the bridge at Hood Manor there's another jam, so its off through the lanes again (detour 2). a few miles further on there's yet another holdup (farm machinery? escaped cows? We'll never know ...) - which ends with us all being waved off down another side road. Detour 3. This is now a detour from a detour, if you see what I mean. By this point I no longer knew where I was, just that I was in the middle of a little convoy of 6 or so cars ... just following the people in front. And that's when my engine stopped.

Courtesy of the guys in the car behind, I got pushed into a farm entrance. When the AA arrived (no street names, no house numbers ...) the verdict was 'dead alternator'. With the AA man charging my battery about three times (charge up ... drive ... car dies ... charge up ... drive ... care dies etc) I eventually got home. This must have been the longest ever return trip from Bovey Tracey to Totnes!

The final cheese list was Somerset Brie, Westcombe Red, Godminster, Montgomery's Cheddar and Quicke's Oak-Smoked Cheddar.

What's missing from the list? You got it - the Keens that had me driving to Totnes in the first place. Quite funny really!

If you want to see the cheese tasting in action, you can have a look at Innocent's blog here.

Rteurn to The Cheese Shed? Click here.

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