Two Oxford Cheese Producers Bring Home Awards

Thursday, 10 December 2015 05:48

Two producers from the Oxford County Cheese Trail won prestigious awards from across the pond.

Oxford County dairy was well represented at the World Cheese Awards in Birmingham England.

Mountainoak Cheese Ltd. from Haysville was awarded Gold in its category with Mountainoak Farmstead GOLD. Owner Adam Van Bergeijk says this cheese features some of the best local dairy has to offer. "Gold for us stands for 'Gold Old Local Dairy.' This cheese has already won several awards; it won champion in the Canadian Grand Prix and class winner at the British Empire Cheese contest in Belleville."

Van Bergeijk says at first he wasn't sure about submitting his cheese for the contest across the pond. "Somebody told us you should submit your cheese to the Royal Cheese Awards and at first I didn't think about it, and then I thought, well, let's try it. And so we sent a piece of cheese to Birmingham in England and it was quite surprising that we won a Gold award."

For Mountainoak Cheese, this is another great honour.

Bright Cheese and Butter Manufacturing Co. Ltd. from Bright was awarded bronze for their asiago and silver for their Old Coloured Cheddar. Bright Cheese and Butter were also finalists at the Great Canadian Cheese Grand Prix and recently received the Premier's Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence.

General manager Stefan Cartmale says "We are extremely happy, extremely proud of the award and very excited to get the news. It kind of came as a surprise - we thought, 'Okay let's enter this contest and see what happens.' We knew we were making some pretty good cheese but it was really nice to get an award on such a large scale from such a world class organization."

In a media release from Tourism Oxford Cartmale adds: "We've always focused on making an excellent product using the highest standards of quality. The awards are fantastic as its validation that our processes and ideals are working. We set a worthwhile goal and focused on what's important. People taste the difference of our product quality and our community continues to support and recognize us for it."

Both of these outstanding producers are a part of the Oxford County Cheese Trail and they invite you to come in and try some of their local cheeses, including these award winners.