A Week on the Estate: Oester Dale, Creamy Soap & Sheepdip Hospitality

“Paul loved the clean, strong character of Oester Dale cheese. It’s more intense than cheddar with an aspect of blue cheese. It really needs to be on a cheeseboard with grapes to refresh the palate. Paul went away with a lot of insight into how we make cheese and his very own 4kg wheel of Oester Dale.

“Oester Dale will probably go on sale in spring 2023. We’ve discovered that giving the cheese one year to mature is about right, although we may experiment with extra-mature special editions in future. We’ve got 80kg of Oester Dale maturing right now. We only milked 12 cows this spring and summer and we couldn’t spare much for cheese. 100 litres of Lincoln Red milk became the frozen custard enjoyed by guests on Estate tours. Most went into the 2,500 bars of soap we’re hoping to start selling soon.

“The soap is still curing but it’ll be ready in plenty of time for Christmas. Georgina’s running the soap project with my oversight. There’s been a lot of experimentation and plenty to learn. The acid-alkaline reaction produces a surprising amount of heat and you really need to understand your product’s chemistry to pass the CPSR (Cosmetic Product Safety Assessment). Our soap will be a high-end beauty product and Georgina’s tuned in to that marketplace.

“We’ve made our Lincoln Red soap in three varieties. The first is a natural, moisturising soap. Next up is ‘Four Thieves’, an all-natural anti-bacterial soap featuring rosemary, thyme and lemon. Rounding off the range is an exfoliating soap with honey and oat to the fore. All our soaps are hypo-allergenic and based on natural oils and Lincoln Red milk with no synthetic ingredients.

“Every soap bar is hand-made, set in a mould for consistency then finished with a stamped Massingberd-Mundy crest. Each variety will be named for an important figure from the Estate’s history. There’s a photo shoot for the Christmas catalogue coming up soon so watch this space.

“There’s always lots for me to do at South Ormsby Estate. Between developing cheese and soap and getting our poultry and beef lines ready for Christmas and beyond, I’m building things in a very literal way. We’re setting up an attractive picnic area at Sheepdip Paddock with a shed for self-service, complimentary drinks and an eco-loo. I’ve been working on the shed this week and it’s nearly finished. I’m very hands-on.

“It should all be finished, staffed and ready to welcome our visitors very soon. It’s all going to be varnished in a smart, consistent colour. There’ll be tea and coffee-making facilities, hand-sanitisers and towels. It will all be cleaned and maintained twice a day, every day. If you come for a walk and happen to see me or the new caretaker, do say hello.”

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