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A cheese made from raw sheep’s milk has won the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) President’s Medal at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
The Pecora Dairy Yarrawa is a semi-hard, raw sheep milk cheese made in the NSW Southern Highlands by Michael and Cressida Cains, who describe themselves as full-circle, single-source, farmhouse producers.
Michael and Cressida Cain from Pecora Dairy in NSW.(ABC Rural: David Claughton)
While the medal is a much-coveted food industry honour, it also signals a significant moment for sheep milk producers.
It is illegal to sell raw milk in Australia and, until recently, it was illegal to produce cheese from raw milk.
Raw milk does not go through a heat treatment process such as pasteurisation to kill pathogenic bacteria so it could contain harmful bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria that can result in illness or even death.
In 2016 Food Standards Australia New Zealand changed the regulations to allow raw milk cheese production.
Pecora Dairy worked with the NSW Food Authority to become the first operators licensed to make raw milk cheese.
The couple milk their own sheep and make the cheese on-site at their Robertson farm.
Pecora dairy sheep.(Supplied: Royal Agricultural Society)
The Yarrawa is named after the Indigenous word for Robertson’s unique cool climate rainforest.
It’s marketed as a Spanish-style semi-hard cheese with herbaceous, citrus, and floral notes.
Cressida Cains said the taste of their cheeses would vary according to the season.
“Each batch of Yarrawa is an expression of the land, a snapshot of what is happening on the farm at a single point in time,” she said.
Triple bottom line award
To qualify for the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) President’s Medal, producers must have been champions in the previous year’s Sydney Royal Wine, Dairy or Fine Food shows.
There are more than 4,000 entrants from 276 classes, 81 of whom have a chance to win a top honour.
Judge Simon Marnie said he was impressed by the quality of this year’s entrants and congratulated the finalists on the work they were doing for the industry.
“The President’s Medal Award is a one-of-a-kind award in our food and beverage industry and it’s the only one in Australia that also allows us to judge a pork producer against a dairy or beer producer,” Mr Marnie said.
The medal assesses taste but also assesses a triple-bottom-line by looking beyond a product and analysing its environmental, commercial, and social impact.
Pecora Dairy also produces a champion ash cheese, which was recognised at this year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show.(Supplied: Royal Agricultural Society)
Pecora has preserved 40 per cent of their land as riparian corridors to provide habitat for wildlife.
“There is a critically endangered shrub on our farm called Pomaderris walshii. Less than 50 plants survive in the wild and they are mostly on our farm,” Ms Cains said.
The Cainses installed solar panels and batteries to supply power to the farm and they sell power in a peer-to-peer trading scheme to other farms in the area.
Ms Cains was recognised in 2021 for her project “Dairy Cocoon”, which helps small dairy farmers create their own branded products. She also helped found the Kiama Farmers Market.
Her cheesemaker husband Michael was the first raw milk cheese producer in the country and now he runs Dairy Australia webinars to educate others.
Among the other finalists were South Australia’s Gumshire Pork, Victoria’s Meredith Dairy, New South Wales’s Mountain Culture Beer Co and The Food Farm, and Queensland’s Stockyard Beef.
Shaun Blenkiron and his family run Gumshire Pork in the Barossa Valley looking after 300 Hampshire heritage-breed pigs in eco-shelters.(Supplied: Royal Agricultural Society)
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