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Ceri Collingborn

BRINKWORTH cheese maker Ceri Collingborn has scooped her first food award less than a year after she started her own dairy.

The news that she has won a medal in the British Cheese Festival comes just weeks after she won £2,000 from North Wiltshire District Council in a hotly contested Chamber of Commerce new business competition.

Ceri, who is the fifth generation cheese maker in her family, said: "I'm really proud and excited. It is only just over eight months since we started.

"I don't get to find out whether it is a gold, silver or bronze until the festival in September."

Her seven pepper cheese is made at a newly constructed state-of-the-art dairy on the family Hill End Farm and the milk is supplied by the farm's pedigree Friesian cows.

"It really is one of our best sellers. It is lovely for picnics. When you buy it it is just two to three days old," she said.

Ceri started the business back in November after 18 months of research, planning, applying for grants and experimenting in the kitchen.

She explained: "I decided that I'd like to continue living and working in our beautiful area, but there wasn't any way for me to take another income out of the farm. So we decided to diversify.

"There are lots of pressures on farmers at the moment. The milk price keeps dropping and the cost of producing it is going up. This is something extra to motivate my father to continue. He has worked really hard to help me get this building built and set up."

The new dairy was built to Ceri's specification and she drew on the family's experience of cheese making to create a range of local delicacies, including Malmesbury Mold and her North Wiltshire Loaf.

Her new husband Chad Cryer, who gave her the idea in the first place, helps her market the products and canvasses retailers.

As well as appearing at the twice-monthly farmers' markets in Malmesbury, her cheeses are now to be found in places like the Fromagerie and Michael Thomas the butchers along with the House of Cheese at Tetbury.

The British Cheese Festival is being held in Cheltenham.

8:52am Monday 14th August 2006

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