Its distinctive appearance is no accident. When St Tola owner Siobhán Ní Ghairbhith began developing St Tola’s ash-coated goat’s cheese around a decade ago, a friend and fellow cheesemaker suggested coating it with vegetable ash to reflect the landscape in which it was being made.
As it matures, the dark coating develops into a crinkled, silver-grey rind reminiscent of the limestone landscape of the nearby Burren. Cut through it and there is a striking contrast: creamy white goat’s cheese beneath.
Now a slice of St Tola’s ash log has joined the Simply Better range at Dunnes Stores, bringing a cheese rooted in the landscape and history of Co Clare to a wider audience.
The history of St Tola stretches back 47 years, when Meg and Derek Gordon moved to the west of Ireland and began looking for a way to make a living during the recession of the 1970s.
Meg had previously spent time in France, where she had encountered its tradition of goat’s cheese. At home, Ireland’s farmhouse cheese industry was beginning to grow. After Meg returned to France to learn how to make goat’s cheese, she came home and established St Tola.
Siobhán grew up just a few miles away. Her parents were primary school teachers and brought pupils on school tours to visit Meg and Derek.
“We thought they were very exotic,” she recalls. At a time when processed cheese and cheddar were much more familiar to Irish children, neighbours making goat’s cheese were something quite different.
Siobhán initially followed her parents into primary school teaching, but an interest in her family’s land increasingly drew her home. She explains, “While I was teaching in Galway, I was watching with interest how farmhouse food and cheese were growing – I suppose, I began to see the potential in what Meg and Derek had created.”
Siobhán completed a postgraduate qualification in business and marketing and, when the couple began looking for someone to continue St Tola, she stepped in. After working alongside them, production moved to her family farm in 1999.
Twenty-seven years later, a lot has changed, but the cheese is still very much handmade.
Something unique
The farm now milks 180 goats, but inside the cheese house moulds are filled by hand, cheeses are removed from their moulds and their edges carefully smoothed with a knife before being cut and packed.
“The core principles I took from Meg and Derek are quality,” says Siobhán. “It’s not about getting bigger and bigger. It’s about being true [to the cheese] and continuing to create something unique.”
The ash cheese now joining the Simply Better range grew from that desire to keep developing something different.
Vegetable ash is applied to the cheese and, as it matures, its natural rind develops. Siobhán describes the result as “a cheese of two parts”: the darker, slightly acidic exterior contrasting with the creamy cheese within.
“It’s a showstopper on a cheeseboard,” she says. “It’s very different.”
The cheese has also earned considerable recognition. St Tola has received awards at the World Cheese Awards, Great Taste Awards and Irish Cheese Awards, as well as a gold and silver award at the Blas na hÉireann awards in Dingle last weekend but Siobhán values competitions as much for the expert feedback as for the accolades themselves.
“We always want honest feedback because we want to make sure we’re not sitting on our laurels,” she says. Recognition is also “a great clap on the back” for her six-person team working across the farm and cheese house.
The new Simply Better presentation is the first time St Tola has cut the ash log into slices and packed it this way. Siobhán says working with Dunnes Stores has also helped make artisan cheese accessible to people who may not have a speciality cheese shop nearby.
“I didn’t want it [St Tola] just to be a cheese that was only available in Michelin-star or high-end restaurants,” she says. “I wanted it available to people who were very interested in artisan food.”
And for those picking up the new Simply Better St Tola cheese in Dunnes Stores, priced at €4.75, Siobhán’s advice is to keep things simple and seasonal.
At this time of year, she suggests Irish apples, a good chutney or red onion marmalade alongside crackers or sourdough bread. It can also be warmed briefly under the grill and finished with a drizzle of honey, paired with beetroot and a citrus dressing, or served with lamb chops or even on a burger.
After almost three decades at St Tola, her approach to food remains firmly connected to the land and the seasons.
“People really need to focus on what they’re eating and not to sacrifice good food,” she says. “It’s about eating less, but valuing more and making sure that what you’re eating is nutritious and good for you.”
Available now in Dunnes Stores nationwide.
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