I'm now a lot fitter.....

.... from walking up to the cheese headquarters due to the snow. Unfortunately, I only have a little sports car that is completely useless in the snow, so over the past couple of weeks I've had to resort to leaving it on the main road and completing the journey on foot.

My mind has wandered between wondering if you can actually get frostbite in Todmorden, to wondering why I didn't build the cheese factory in the valley bottom. I've even contemplated buying some ridiculous 4x4 car but ruled this out because I definitely prefer my Celica. The 20 minute walk has certainly filled my head with ideas, just imagine what a walk to the South Pole would do to my imagination.

I forced myself to be constructive in this time of cold desperation, resulting in me re-designing/re-writing the Pextenement Cheese website in my head. So, roll on 5 days of being hunched over my laptop, coding what has filled my head for the last few days, albeit with a few excursions into Facebook etc., to keep my sanity.

I've almost keyed it all in, I'm just testing it now. The results will be available soon, hope you all like the new look......

ps. if anyone wants a website, let me know.......

Pextenement Cheese Company wins an award....

Many thanks to everyone who voted for Pextenement Cheese Company in the recent Todmorden Business Association awards. We won the inaugral 'Totally Locally Hero' award - for the best Todmorden product or service of 2009.

More details (and a rare picture of Carl!) can be found in this newspaper article....

http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news/Todmorden39s-business-award-winners-celebrate.5933213.jp

Pextenement Cheese Company in the news,

We've appeared in quite a few press articles over the past few weeks. Here are a number or links to the web versions if you're interested in reading more about us......



1) Independent on Sunday. General article about Todmorden's food self sufficiency.



http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/todmordens-good-life-introducing-britains-greenest-town-1830666.html



2) Calderdale Means Business. Magazine article with a large section dedicated to us.



http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/magazines/Calderdale-Means-Business--edition.5248910.jp

3) Todmorden News / Hebden Bridge Times article with reference to Pextenement Organic Cheese. Note, both articles are identical, but published in different newspapers.

http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news-features/Ear-To-The-Ground-Can.5898762.jp?articlepage=1

http://www.hebdenbridgetimes.co.uk/features/Ear-To-The-Ground-Can.5898762.jp?articlepage=1

East Lee Soft - is Tod's "Specialist Product"....

...according to Martin Wainwright of the Guardian!

Yep, that's right, our East Lee Soft cheese gets a mention in Martin's blog on guardian.co.uk. The article stems from the Michael Portillo episode highlighted below in this blog.

For more details, read the Guardian blog at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2009/sep/17/northerner-martin-wainwright

* the East Lee Soft bit is right at the bottom of article !!

Oh dear, Michael Portillo missed out.....

It was a once in a lifetime chance for Mr Portillo to taste some of our East Lee Soft Cheese and he missed out by a matter of minutes (Jean had sold out as usual!). We'd delivered around 50 pieces the day before and they'd all gone by the time he got to the Crumbly Cheese stall.

For the full Todmorden News article, follow this link....

http://www.todmordennews.co.uk/news/Michael-Portillo-calls-in-for.5634229.jp

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......