Since 1998, artisan cheese makers Miles and Janet King have silently created a broad series of supreme ewe and cow's milk cheeses on their idyllic 30-acre farm on the outskirts of Masterton, New Zealand.
Kingsmeade began making ewe's milk cheeses with milk from their own flock of East Friesian sheep. Clover, chicory, plantain and also lucerne cover broad, green meadows. The sheep allow, contented and loaded with character-- no demand to round them up at milking time, they listen to Miles' voice and come on their own.
After years of hands on care, meticulous records and genetic studies, Miles' flock has developed into New Zealand's very first registered sheep milking breed - Dairymeade.
Today, Kingsmeade makes nine different varieties of cheese, a lot of from ewe's milk and also some from cow's. All are uniquely hand crafted, ranging from aged hard varieties to deliciously creamy.
Tranquility and quietly spoken, Miles is hands-on from the very first steamy breath of the newborn lambs to the daily milking, cheesemaking, cutting and packaging. Each set of cheese is hand made in the manufacturing facility on the farm, right next to the family home. Janet runs the distribution, cheerfully dispatching orders throughout New Zealand.