Pextenement and Costermonger join forces....

It's been more than 20 years but Carl and Chris (from Costermonger) have once again joined forces, this time to sell Pextenement East Lee Soft Cheese!


This is how they looked all those years ago (excuse the old photographs!)......







** Carl is on the left, Chris on the right!! Not changed much!
You never know, they might be dusting the guitars off again soon......

East Lee Soft Cheese has now been launched....

We finally got there today with the launch of our first cheese - East Lee Soft cheese!



It's not been easy! It's taken 12 months hard work, working with 58 suppliers (who've benefited to the tune of 110 invoices!) and numerous council departments, agencies and organisations. But it's good now to finally see the cheese being bought by the public of Todmorden.

This week has seen us create (and individually wrap!) hundreds of cheeses to simultaneously launch at the Crumbly Cheese stall in the indoor market and the Bear Wholefoods and Cafe. In addition, the Todmorden Vintner Bistro and Cherries Tea Room have now included the cheese on their menus.

Inbetween producing the cheese, we've been interviewed by the Todmorden News to coincide with the launch. To view the article, see http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news/Say-cheesebecause-Todmorden-now-has.5552072.jp

This is how the cheeses looked on the Crumbly Cheese stall. Andrew spent ages arranging them like this, it didn't last long......

It really is coming soon now....

After a hectic few weeks of Hazard Analysis and Environmental Health inspections we have finally been granted our Health Mark number - 'UK VE055 EC' - by the Calderdale Environmental Health team.

Pending the results of the laboratory tests, the launch of the Pextenement East Lee Soft Cheese will be planned this week, hopefully to take place in the next couple of weeks.

Watch this space for the details of the launch and where you can buy East Lee Soft Cheese.

The building, before and after

Another comparison photo. This is the outside of the cheese premises, before the building work started and after completion:

I just spoke to Rita.....

In the first post of this blog, I mentioned a book called 'Cheesecraft', here it is...

It was written in the '80s by Rita Ash, who by coincidence, I've just spoken to!!

I've been looking for a piece of machinery and was given the number of someone in Devon who's husband Alan makes bespoke cheese equipment - this turned out to be Rita!

Since that initial phone call Alan has built me a number of bespoke items, including this:

Oops....

No matter how many times I mentioned the narrow road and 180 degree bend on my order, some carriers still insisted on sending large trucks!

The driver was pleased with himself when he got the truck up the road, but got stuck on the way down. It was a hot day and the truck got stuck on the bend with the wheels spinning in the molten tarmac.

After making the driver sweat for a while (his control room had noticed that he wasn't moving!), he was dragged out by a tractor!

The building is taking shape....

Progress on the premises is going well. The ceiling, walls and floor are now in place. Here are some before and after pictures to show the extent of the work so far.....