Host of awards for Appleby Creamery

An Eden Valley company is celebrating after winning a host of industry awards.

Appleby Creamery has enjoyed unprecedented success this summer, winning six major awards for its cheeses, which are all made by hand in Appleby.

Its Eden Smokie won Gold at the Mid-Somerset Show in August and there were also gold medals for its Nanny McBrie and the company’s newly-launched Grilling Cheese.

The latter also won best newly-launched cheese at the Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate. It is a Halloumi-style cheese and Appleby Creamery was also named Best Specialist Artisan Cheesemaker at the Mid-Somerset Show and presented with the Sean Wilson trophy by renowned cheese judge Kerry Love, who travelled to Appleby to present the trophy to operations manager Tom Jackson.

Eden Smokie was class runner up in the competitive Smoked Cheese section in this year’s Virtual Cheese Awards.

A further four awards for the Cross Croft Industrial Estate-based creamery are due to be announced towards the end of October.

Managing director Maurice Walton said: “We are delighted at this year’s success, which was made possible by the dedication and hard work of our team of young cheesemakers.

“To celebrate these achievements, we plan to launch a special award-winning cheese selection box in the run-up to Christmas so that everyone can taste the winning cheeses.”

The creamery, which employs 17 staff, was visited by Penrith and The Border MP Neil Hudson.

Dr Hudson said: “Encouraging jobs, investment and exciting innovators into the local area is one of my top priorities as a Member of Parliament. To better do that, I find it so useful to get up close to a local business, discuss challenges and successes, and take these discussions back to Westminster.

“I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the team at Appleby Creamery. Their flourishing business is a bastion of best practice when it comes to sustainability, local sourcing and quality. I am proud to advocate for Appleby Creamery in Westminster and the host of trailblazing independent businesses thriving here in Penrith and The Border.”

Dr Hudson toured the site, including the new facility that has been created recently to be used as a Maker Space in conjunction with the Digital Dairy Chain, a UKRI Strength in Places funded project that aims to put Cumbria, South and West Scotland on the world map as a leader in advanced, sustainable and digitally connected dairy manufacturing.