It’s all about cheese

Sue Arthur dedicated her life to cheese when a mid-life crisis struck in 1990. She wanted to open a business before she retired and so Over The Moon Dairy was born.

“I really just enjoy eating cheese. There was always cheese in our house when I was growing up,” she said

“The minute I started (Over the Moon) we fell into recession and I don’t think really anybody saw that coming and it lasted for about five years.

With major factories like Fonterra just down the road, it wasn’t an easy start for the company. The industry is hard to break into, according to Arthur, and expensive in New Zealand. But artisan cheese making and hand made cheeses are still in high demand.

“The artisan field is really not that competitive. The companies that are in the business do a load of different cheeses so it makes sense in the business when you’re setting up not to do the same cheese as your neighbour.”

Their deli might not be the biggest on the block, but it sure makes you feel like you’ve stepped into another world. A big window lets you see into the kitchen where the cheese is made, giving you a first person perspective of Over The Moon cheese in the making, from the mixing to the processing and then setting.

The cheese then sits in one of the three freezers at the back of the deli waiting for the mould to grow and to be packaged for sale.

Arthur is proud that all the cheese is hand made and with four different milks.

Sheep, cow, goat and buffalo milk isn’t a very common shopping list. They’ve made a blue cheese that’s a blend of buffalo and cows’ milk and another hard cheese called Tomme in which they used buffalo and goat milk. All their ingredients are locally sourced. So locally, in fact, Arthur’s neighbour supplies her with friesian milk during the summer.

Triple Cream Brie – also called OMG – is by far their most popular seller, both in the shop and at Fieldays.

“It’s a beautiful brie that’s just very buttery, and creamy and melts in the mouth and makes you want more. And the girls made Crottin, which is made out of buffalo milk. It’s a small cheese with white mould on the outside but it’s different to a camembert.”

Arthur and her staff run a tight ship at Over The Moon Dairy. It’s a hands on operation from making the cheese to washing and packaging it. They make a range of 35 cheeses, at around 23,000 kilograms of cheese a year.

Over The Moon Dairy cheese are coming to Fieldays for the sixth time and their stand is with other food stalls in the Kiwi’s Best marquee. The team are changing it up this year by presenting their range of hard cheese in three different flavours as well as a big range of their other cheeses.

But Over The Moon Dairy are not the only artisan cheese makers attending Fieldays. Meyer Gouda Cheese will also have a stall at Kiwi’s Best.

Ben and Fieke Meyer were still building their factory when they made their very first cheese, a gouda, in July 1976.

It’s a family affair for Meyer Gouda Cheese Company. Miel, the Meyers’ youngest son took over the general manager role after his parents retired in 2007.  And in 2011 the eldest son Geert came back from the Netherlands to be head cheese maker.

“Cheese to me is a lifestyle,” Miel said. “Being born into a family that made cheese it was hard for me to avoid it. So I think it was for me, like my brother, natural to be involved in some way at all stages of our lives.”

Miel said Fieldays is a “truly outstanding” event for them.

“This year will be our fourth year. Due to the vast number of people who attend, our sales are huge. We get great local support which is appreciated. And Fieldays guests come from all over New Zealand and the world so we make many new contacts and often gain new customers and suppliers.”

Vintage Gouda is Meyer Gouda’s best seller at Fieldays. “It has a strong full bodied flavour,” Miel said.

“Overall the culture at Fieldays is what makes it a great event to attend. We are happy to part of something that has been so popular.”