Introducing Menai Jones, our Cheesemaker of the Month

22 Oct 2024

This summer I had the huge privilege of spending a week visiting several of our cheesemakers. We’re very lucky to work closely with artisan producers from all corners of Wales, and it’s always a pleasure to get away from Welsh Cheese HQ every-so-often to visit some of these amazing farms and dairies.

My time at Menai Jones’ farm (Caws Rhyd y Delyn) on Anglesey was particularly special. Menai makes Mon Las, a delicious blue cheese, using milk from the family farm’s herd of holstein fresian cows. I spent the afternoon looking around the dairy and the farm, helping to make a batch of Mon Las and watching the herd being brought in for milking.

All of Menai’s cheeses are made by hand in small batches. As well as Mon Las, Menai also sometimes makes a firm cheese called Gouda Mon. The milk travels just a few metres from the modern milking parlour to the dairy, where it’s pasteurised before the cheesemaking process begins.

The family farm’s herd of 200 cows produces much more cheese than Menai needs for her small scale cheese operation. Menai makes a batch of cheese roughly every 2 weeks, each batch being just 20 or so wheels.

Interestingly, the fantastic Brefu Bach, a ewe’s milk cheese made by Carrie Rimes, was also made at Caws Rhyd y Delyn for a few years before Carrie set up her own dairy.

When I started The Welsh Cheese Company seven years ago, Mon Las was one of only two Welsh blues. We now stock five varieties, but Mon Las remains a firm favourite. It’s down to the hard work and talent of cheesemakers like Menai that Wales has such a range of world-class cheeses, so I’m extremely grateful to Caws Rhyd y Delyn and all of the other cheesemakers we work with.