Cornish Yarg

Cornish Yarg gets its name from the original cheese maker, Alan Gray which is actually Yarg spelt backwards! He reportedly found the recipe from 1615 in his attic and sold it to a nearby farm in 1984, the cheese was originally made by the Horrell family in a little village called Rilla Mill about 2 miles from our farm. Catherine Mead joined the Lynher Dairies team in the 1990s and led the growth in the early 2000s until they outgrew their first dairy and moved production to a purpose-built dairy near Truro.

The cheese is loosely based on a Caerphilly recipe, and it is wrapped in stinging nettles that are completely edible. Nettle wrapped cheese goes back centuries but the ideal Cornish Yarg nettle leaf is young, vibrantly green and larger than average. They are not always easy to find but Lynher Dairies have their top secret locations in the local Cornish countryside that they hand-pick them from and a team of nettlers apply the leaves once the cheeses have been removed from their moulds and brined ready for maturation. The leaves protect the cheese, while allowing it to breathe and attract the specific moulds that create dusting of bloomy white moulds across their leafy, edible rinds.

The Yarg is turned by hand every other day and takes six weeks from field to being sold. It's described as having a fresh mushroomy taste with an irresistible crumble in the core. It's a house hold name on the cheese counter these days and to make it even more special, it can only be made in Cornwall by Lynher Diaries themselves.

Buy Cornish Yarg Here