Dad converts 5x4m garage into award-winning cheese factory

A dad-of-five who was given a novelty £4.99 cheese making kit as a Christmas present now runs his own artisan creamery - from his garage.

Transcript

00:00So I'm Matthew Lloyd, I run the Rennet Works Cheese Studio over in Shropshire, we go in

00:15near Oswestry and we are a small boutique cheese making company.

00:21So five years ago I was given a small £4.99 cheese kit by my sister-in-law for Christmas,

00:30started making cheese from there really, really got into the process of making cheese and

00:35how you can turn milk into wonderful things, the spectrum of cheeses from such a humble

00:41thing called milk is quite huge and a fantastic thing for me to do and I really, really enjoy

00:47it.

00:49I do a lot of cooking for fun, I love cooking for the family, barbecuing, smoking etc. and

00:55when I got this, this was just a natural progression into something different around the food areas

01:03really so that's really where it all got started.

01:07I feel like I've come home to cheese really, I've been in construction for the last 30

01:11odd years, doing consultancy across the country for the last 20 years and really this for

01:18me has given me another outlet for me to be able to look towards, I'm 50 odd at the moment

01:26and in the next couple of years really looking towards doing this on a much, much bigger

01:32scale but this is why I love it, it's just perfect for me and I feel like I've come home

01:37to it.

01:40I would advise anybody to make cheese, absolutely anybody, people look at cheese and think oh

01:46I couldn't make that, well actually you can, I started with a £4.99 cheese kit, a sauce

01:51bun, a colander and a cloth and a thermometer and that was it and I started making wonderful

01:57cheeses which in my mind and friends and family's mind taste better than some of the cheeses

02:03you buy in the supermarket.

02:05I absolutely push anybody and part of what I want to do in the future is offer lessons

02:10at the Rennetworks for people to make cheese, I want to be able to push the limits of what

02:16British cheese making can be but I think for anybody who wants to have a go, feel free

02:21to get in touch with me, I'll certainly give you a hand with it but have a go, there's

02:27plenty out there, plenty of online learning and what have you you can do and yeah, give

02:32it a go is all I'll say.