In Irish cheese circles, Dan Hegarty is known as a real character with a great sense of humour, but there is one thing he is very serious about: developing excellent cheese. In fact, five years ago the multi-award-winning cheesemaker hired Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin so together they could develop an Irish comté cheese and recently Templegall from Hegarty’s Cheese was named Supreme Champion at the 2021 Cáis Awards.
It is his original cheese recipe – Hegarty’s cheddar – that is part of the Simply Better Irish Farmhouse Cheese Collection. “This is the cheese I have been making for 21 years, the cheese that made me a cheesemaker.”
Dan Hegarty of Hegarty Cheese, Whitechurch, Co Cork, is well known in the Irish farmhouse cheese sector. \ Donal O'Leary
Up until then, Dan was farming the land at Whitechurch in Cork with his father Jim. “Farmers are price takers, not necessarily price makers, I wanted to take back a bit of control. So I looked at what we had: dairy cows grazing on luscious grass producing good quality milk and decided to give cheesemaking a shot.”
Dan did his market research looking for gaps in the market and to see what at the time, Ireland was importing. “Kevin Sheridan (of Sheridan’s Cheesemongers) told me that there was no traditional cloth-bound cheddar [being made in Ireland] so I joined Cáis and got to work.”
Dan Hegarty joined Cáis when Kevin Sheridan told him there were no cloth-bound cheddars in Ireland. \ Donal O'Leary
Cheesemaking factors
There are a few factors that contribute to the excellence of Hegarty’s cheddar. “We only use milk from our farm, that is very important to us and only make cheese when the cows are out on grass. There is a lot of fancy French talk about ‘terroir’ (the environmental factors that affect a product) especially around wine – the vines and the grapes that are grown. But terroir is just as relevant when you talk about good grass producing excellent milk for cheese.”
Worth the wait
Another key factor in Dan’s cheesemaking process is the cloth wrapping. “You could say our cheese is matured naked, or close enough,” he laughs. “Compare that to commercial cheddar which, after it is made, is vacuum packed and then left to mature in plastic. The cloth allows the air to flow through the cheese, in the way it was traditionally matured and this really impacts on the taste, making it more nuanced and flavourful.”
Dan Hegarty and Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin worked together to create an Irish comté cheese. \ Donal O'Leary
After that, it just takes time. “It took time to develop our recipe to get it right and our cheese matures for 12 months so it is a long time in the making.” But the wait is worth it.
Dan says working with Simply Better was a saving grace when COVID-19 hit.
“Restaurants closed, there were less people walking into cheese shops and going to markets, the phone stopped ringing. Luckily, we were already in talks with the Simply Better team and lockdown speeded up the whole process. We went on shelf at a time when people were just doing one big weekly shop in their supermarket and our cheese was going into their trolley. That consistent order from Dunnes Stores Simply Better helped us plan in uncertain times and certainly helped revive our business.”
Using the cloth-bound method of maturing cheese allows the air to flow through the cheese. \ Donal O'Leary
Jeffa and Sarah Gill Durrus Farmhouse Cheese.
It was an article about her published in the Irish Farmers Journal, back in 1981, which encouraged Jeffa Gill to grow her business, Durrus Cheese. Her daughter Sarah explains: “The piece was highlighting the efforts of the early innovators of Irish farmhouse cheese in the 1970s and it was important to my mother at that time to get that recognition, that what she was doing was noteworthy. It helped her realise that there really was a business in cheesemaking and that perhaps, she could make a living out of it.”
Since then Durrus Cheese has grown to become one of the most iconic farmhouse cheese brands in the country. Jeffa now works in partnership with Sarah. Cheesemaker Ann McGrath has also been part of the small team for over 30 years. Everything about Durrus is local: the team, the milk and the cheesemaking.
Jeffa and Sarah Gill Durrus Farmhouse Cheese.
Sarah says: “Our milk comes from two farms, both within 10km. We have been sourcing milk from the Buckley family for 30 years and the Dukelow family for nearly as long. Because of our mild climate here in west Cork, the cows graze on the fresh grass beside the sea for most of the year and that definitely influences the flavour. When we are making the cheese, we never mix the milk from the two farms so that each batch is fully traceable.”
Crafted with care
Durrus Óg, the cheese that is supplied to Simply Better in Dunnes Stores is made every morning from the milk that is collected the night before from the farm.
“We make our milk in a traditional way,” explains Sarah. “We start by adding the cultures and heating the milk, putting in the rennet that coagulate the milk. Then we hand cut the curd using a Swiss-style traditional harp. Two of us pass it back and forth across the cheese vat, cutting the curd and separating the whey by hand. We then stir the curd and when it is ready for the cheese moulds, we let gravity do its work.
“There is no pumping, it is a very gentle process. We hand turn the moulds to drain the whey and then the cheese is put in a brine of salt water for preservation and flavour. It is then put on racks in our curing rooms and the cheese is turned, wiped and cared for every day for two weeks.”
Sarah says the climate in west Cork, with its high humidity is ideal to develop the cheese rind that forms into a delicate pinkish colour. “After two weeks, it is then dried and ready for packaging – again all done by hand – before being collected by Dunnes Stores”
The result is a beautiful creamy, young semi-soft, rind ripened cheese which is multi-award winning. Sarah says: “Simply Better really recognise quality and it is fantastic to be part of their cheese range, to sit on shelf with a plethora of other excellent Irish farmhouse cheesemakers. And it means our cheese is widely available to customers far beyond west Cork.”
Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese
Siobhan, Jane and Luke Murphy, Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.\ Donal O'Leary
There is a second generation of Irish farmhouse cheesemakers coming into their own, and Luke Murphy is one of them.
In fact, it was his childhood eczema that spurred the creation of Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese as his mother Jane started making goat’s yoghurts and cheese to help sooth the condition.
Luke says: “We always had goats at home. When Mum started making cheese in the 80s, it was on a very small scale, but over the years it grew from a kitchen production to a business and it went commercial in 1996. 
“At the start, it was mostly hard cheese but after a while, the soft cheese really took off. Chefs were really important in progressing the business. The really good ones who value quality and a handmade process, who know that it comes at price and will name-check you on the menu, these are the chefs that really helped us grow.”
Home to his roots
Luke lived in the UK working in IT but he knew he wanted to raise children with his partner back on a farm in Ireland.
“Now my folks are mostly retired and I have progressed from cheesemaker into the business side of things as well. We’re not a big dynamic company but we are a well-run family business and that’s how we want to stay. We don’t want to grow too big, the focus has to be on the quality. But we’re happy with how we build year on year. And my sisters Siobhan and Louise are both involved in the business.”
Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.\ Donal O'Leary
He always jests with his partner Rachel that with five children there is a good chance, that one of them will get the cheese bug but as his eldest William is 12 and his youngest Bowen is just two, it could be a while yet.
Three of a kind
Ardsallagh supply three cheeses to the Simply Better range of farmhouse cheese in Dunnes Stores. “The first is our signature Ardsallagh Fresh Goat’s Cheese, it is just milk, rennet, starter culture and a little sprinkling of salt. Spread onto a cracker, this is beautiful in its simplicity.”
Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.
/ Donal O' Leary
A Christmas favourite is the Ardsallagh with Cranberries where the deliciously creamy goat’s cheese is elevated by pops of cranberry sweetness. Luke says: “We use the Ballymaloe cranberry sauce and it is cooked like a jam but whole cranberries are added which gives it this lovely moreish texture. We then dollop it on the cheese, roll it like a roulade and cut it into slices.
“The Ballymaloe cranberry sauce really gives it an artisan tang and this one isn’t just popular in the Simply Better range, we actually send a lot of it to the Irish embassy in London for their Christmas parties.”
Additionally, Ardsallagh make a Greek-style cheese, Ardsallagh Salad Cheese. Luke explains: “We make it according to a traditional Greek recipe, it’s handmade and we use a bucket for scooping the curds, it’s brined in a salt bath and is chopped and packaged by hand. It’s a very natural product that is delicious with olives, sun-dried tomatoes or even a nice glug of olive oil.”
On working with the Dunnes Stores Simply Better team, Luke says: “Getting listed with Simply Better has really driven our creativity as cheesemakers.
“The team are very open to new and interesting flavours and are understanding that as small producers that we might not be able to produce them in massive quantities but work with us to find a solution that will work for us and their customers.”
Read more
Simply Better Advertorial: a cheese family
ADVERTORIAL: a Simply Better Christmas
In Irish cheese circles, Dan Hegarty is known as a real character with a great sense of humour, but there is one thing he is very serious about: developing excellent cheese. In fact, five years ago the multi-award-winning cheesemaker hired Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin so together they could develop an Irish comté cheese and recently Templegall from Hegarty’s Cheese was named Supreme Champion at the 2021 Cáis Awards.
It is his original cheese recipe – Hegarty’s cheddar – that is part of the Simply Better Irish Farmhouse Cheese Collection. “This is the cheese I have been making for 21 years, the cheese that made me a cheesemaker.”
Dan Hegarty of Hegarty Cheese, Whitechurch, Co Cork, is well known in the Irish farmhouse cheese sector. \ Donal O'Leary
Up until then, Dan was farming the land at Whitechurch in Cork with his father Jim. “Farmers are price takers, not necessarily price makers, I wanted to take back a bit of control. So I looked at what we had: dairy cows grazing on luscious grass producing good quality milk and decided to give cheesemaking a shot.”
Dan did his market research looking for gaps in the market and to see what at the time, Ireland was importing. “Kevin Sheridan (of Sheridan’s Cheesemongers) told me that there was no traditional cloth-bound cheddar [being made in Ireland] so I joined Cáis and got to work.”
Dan Hegarty joined Cáis when Kevin Sheridan told him there were no cloth-bound cheddars in Ireland. \ Donal O'Leary
Cheesemaking factors
There are a few factors that contribute to the excellence of Hegarty’s cheddar. “We only use milk from our farm, that is very important to us and only make cheese when the cows are out on grass. There is a lot of fancy French talk about ‘terroir’ (the environmental factors that affect a product) especially around wine – the vines and the grapes that are grown. But terroir is just as relevant when you talk about good grass producing excellent milk for cheese.”
Worth the wait
Another key factor in Dan’s cheesemaking process is the cloth wrapping. “You could say our cheese is matured naked, or close enough,” he laughs. “Compare that to commercial cheddar which, after it is made, is vacuum packed and then left to mature in plastic. The cloth allows the air to flow through the cheese, in the way it was traditionally matured and this really impacts on the taste, making it more nuanced and flavourful.”
Dan Hegarty and Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin worked together to create an Irish comté cheese. \ Donal O'Leary
After that, it just takes time. “It took time to develop our recipe to get it right and our cheese matures for 12 months so it is a long time in the making.” But the wait is worth it.
Dan says working with Simply Better was a saving grace when COVID-19 hit.
“Restaurants closed, there were less people walking into cheese shops and going to markets, the phone stopped ringing. Luckily, we were already in talks with the Simply Better team and lockdown speeded up the whole process. We went on shelf at a time when people were just doing one big weekly shop in their supermarket and our cheese was going into their trolley. That consistent order from Dunnes Stores Simply Better helped us plan in uncertain times and certainly helped revive our business.”
Using the cloth-bound method of maturing cheese allows the air to flow through the cheese. \ Donal O'Leary
Jeffa and Sarah Gill Durrus Farmhouse Cheese.
It was an article about her published in the Irish Farmers Journal, back in 1981, which encouraged Jeffa Gill to grow her business, Durrus Cheese. Her daughter Sarah explains: “The piece was highlighting the efforts of the early innovators of Irish farmhouse cheese in the 1970s and it was important to my mother at that time to get that recognition, that what she was doing was noteworthy. It helped her realise that there really was a business in cheesemaking and that perhaps, she could make a living out of it.”
Since then Durrus Cheese has grown to become one of the most iconic farmhouse cheese brands in the country. Jeffa now works in partnership with Sarah. Cheesemaker Ann McGrath has also been part of the small team for over 30 years. Everything about Durrus is local: the team, the milk and the cheesemaking.
Jeffa and Sarah Gill Durrus Farmhouse Cheese.
Sarah says: “Our milk comes from two farms, both within 10km. We have been sourcing milk from the Buckley family for 30 years and the Dukelow family for nearly as long. Because of our mild climate here in west Cork, the cows graze on the fresh grass beside the sea for most of the year and that definitely influences the flavour. When we are making the cheese, we never mix the milk from the two farms so that each batch is fully traceable.”
Crafted with care
Durrus Óg, the cheese that is supplied to Simply Better in Dunnes Stores is made every morning from the milk that is collected the night before from the farm.
“We make our milk in a traditional way,” explains Sarah. “We start by adding the cultures and heating the milk, putting in the rennet that coagulate the milk. Then we hand cut the curd using a Swiss-style traditional harp. Two of us pass it back and forth across the cheese vat, cutting the curd and separating the whey by hand. We then stir the curd and when it is ready for the cheese moulds, we let gravity do its work.
“There is no pumping, it is a very gentle process. We hand turn the moulds to drain the whey and then the cheese is put in a brine of salt water for preservation and flavour. It is then put on racks in our curing rooms and the cheese is turned, wiped and cared for every day for two weeks.”
Sarah says the climate in west Cork, with its high humidity is ideal to develop the cheese rind that forms into a delicate pinkish colour. “After two weeks, it is then dried and ready for packaging – again all done by hand – before being collected by Dunnes Stores”
The result is a beautiful creamy, young semi-soft, rind ripened cheese which is multi-award winning. Sarah says: “Simply Better really recognise quality and it is fantastic to be part of their cheese range, to sit on shelf with a plethora of other excellent Irish farmhouse cheesemakers. And it means our cheese is widely available to customers far beyond west Cork.”
Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese
Siobhan, Jane and Luke Murphy, Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.\ Donal O'Leary
There is a second generation of Irish farmhouse cheesemakers coming into their own, and Luke Murphy is one of them.
In fact, it was his childhood eczema that spurred the creation of Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese as his mother Jane started making goat’s yoghurts and cheese to help sooth the condition.
Luke says: “We always had goats at home. When Mum started making cheese in the 80s, it was on a very small scale, but over the years it grew from a kitchen production to a business and it went commercial in 1996.
“At the start, it was mostly hard cheese but after a while, the soft cheese really took off. Chefs were really important in progressing the business. The really good ones who value quality and a handmade process, who know that it comes at price and will name-check you on the menu, these are the chefs that really helped us grow.”
Home to his roots
Luke lived in the UK working in IT but he knew he wanted to raise children with his partner back on a farm in Ireland.
“Now my folks are mostly retired and I have progressed from cheesemaker into the business side of things as well. We’re not a big dynamic company but we are a well-run family business and that’s how we want to stay. We don’t want to grow too big, the focus has to be on the quality. But we’re happy with how we build year on year. And my sisters Siobhan and Louise are both involved in the business.”
Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.\ Donal O'Leary
He always jests with his partner Rachel that with five children there is a good chance, that one of them will get the cheese bug but as his eldest William is 12 and his youngest Bowen is just two, it could be a while yet.
Three of a kind
Ardsallagh supply three cheeses to the Simply Better range of farmhouse cheese in Dunnes Stores. “The first is our signature Ardsallagh Fresh Goat’s Cheese, it is just milk, rennet, starter culture and a little sprinkling of salt. Spread onto a cracker, this is beautiful in its simplicity.”
Ardsallagh Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.
/ Donal O' Leary
A Christmas favourite is the Ardsallagh with Cranberries where the deliciously creamy goat’s cheese is elevated by pops of cranberry sweetness. Luke says: “We use the Ballymaloe cranberry sauce and it is cooked like a jam but whole cranberries are added which gives it this lovely moreish texture. We then dollop it on the cheese, roll it like a roulade and cut it into slices.
“The Ballymaloe cranberry sauce really gives it an artisan tang and this one isn’t just popular in the Simply Better range, we actually send a lot of it to the Irish embassy in London for their Christmas parties.”
Additionally, Ardsallagh make a Greek-style cheese, Ardsallagh Salad Cheese. Luke explains: “We make it according to a traditional Greek recipe, it’s handmade and we use a bucket for scooping the curds, it’s brined in a salt bath and is chopped and packaged by hand. It’s a very natural product that is delicious with olives, sun-dried tomatoes or even a nice glug of olive oil.”
On working with the Dunnes Stores Simply Better team, Luke says: “Getting listed with Simply Better has really driven our creativity as cheesemakers.
“The team are very open to new and interesting flavours and are understanding that as small producers that we might not be able to produce them in massive quantities but work with us to find a solution that will work for us and their customers.”
Read more
Simply Better Advertorial: a cheese family
ADVERTORIAL: a Simply Better Christmas
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: