Cheeses Loves You

Cheese maker, dairy farmer’s wife, educator, mentor… It’s all about living the dream for Debra Allard.

The 200-acre farm in Upper Burringbar has been in the Allard family since Jim’s great grandfather purchased the property from the government in 1895 for £1 an acre. One of the conditions of the purchase was that it be cleared for pasture. After operating for generations, the farm operated until 1986, when illness forced Jim’s father out of dairying.

In 2016, Deb and her husband Jim restarted the farm for the purpose of providing single source high quality milk to make Deb’s award-winning cheese.

While many dairy farmers choose Friesian cows for the high volume of milk they produce, Deb and Jim have restocked their family dairy farm with 95 Jersey cows, getting high quality milk more suited to cheesemaking, the surplus milk being bought by the Norco cooperative.

Now, with the farm in full swing, Deb makes cheese fulltime, producing about 25 different highly-prized small batch and additive free products including ricotta, Mr Squeaky (haloumi), fetish (feta), brie, camembert and blue, as well as other dairy products such as kefir, buttermilk, cultured butter and yoghurt.

“It’s the perfect end and a new beginning,” says Deb. “The farm is secure for the future and the family.”

You can meet Deb and buy her Cheeses Loves You cheese at the Byron Farmers Market (Thursdays), Mullumbimby Farmers Market (Fridays), Kingscliff TAFE Market (Saturdays), at Bottle & Hoop Brunswick Heads, Bay Grocer and Uki Supermarket.

Cheeses Loves You cheese is featured on the menus of Potager, Harvest, Pipit, Rae’s, Fleet, Inky Squid, Farm & Co. Table Under a Tree, and Husk Distillery.


Print Recipe
Zucchini and ‘Mr Squeaky’ haloumi fritters
Instructions
  1. Put the grated zucchini in a colander. Squeeze out the excess liquid and pat the zucchini dry with a paper towel.
  2. Put the zucchini, shallots, grated haloumi and beaten eggs in a bowl and stir until combined. Stir in the flour.
  3. Heat the oil in a non-stick fry pan until hot and drop batter into fry pan, flattening gently with the back of the spatula. Cook until well browned on both sides. Drain on paper towel and serve with homemade tomato relish.

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