The award of Top Farmhouse Cheese was given to Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese.
OXFORD COUNTY - Gun's Hill Artisan Cheese recently earned the honour of Top Farmhouse cheese at the Cheese Grand Prix. The event which is hosted every two years is sponsored by the Dairy Farmers of Canada.
Milk from the Ysselstein family farm Friesvale Farms was used to make the winning Handeck cheese. Friesvale Dairy Farm was established in the 1950's by Shep Ysselstein's grandfather who immigrated to the area from Holland. Owner of Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese Shep Ysselstein said there were a number of criteria that the cheese was evaluated on, "in the Farmhouse category it's a category that includes cheeses from all different varieties but the main thing about it is that all the milk comes from your own farm." Shep points out that it was a competitive process, "in the contest as a whole there was something like 260 entries spread over a number of different categories based on the type of cheese that it is, but the Farmhouse category is unique in that all the milk comes from your own farm."
"It's just really exciting for us still as a fairly new cheese maker that it gives us some credibility that we can make cheeses that can compete against other cheeses made here in Canada."

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