Bassine cheese update - farm stops milking in October
Some news from the farm, and we wanted you to hear it from us first.
We will milk our herd for the last time at the end of October. Glen’s parents, Attilio and Mary, began dairying here in 1966 — and after sixty years we’re stepping back from daily milking. Below we explain what will stop (milk bottles, farm deliveries, on‑farm cheesemaking), what will continue at the café and shop, and how long you can still find your favourite Bassine cheeses on the counter.
Why now
Glen has had some health setbacks this year. Milking happens every single day of the year, whatever the weather and however you’re feeling, and it doesn’t wait for anyone to get better. We’ve looked hard for someone to take on the farm and the milking, and we haven’t found the right person. So we’ve made the decision now, while we can make it properly.
What’s changing
Without our own milk, a few things come to an end:
- Bass River Dairies milk. The last bottles will be in the shop and with our stockists in the last week of October.
- Deliveries. We’re no longer delivering milk or cheese to other shops and cafés. To everyone who has stocked us over the years: thank you.
- Cheesemaking on the farm. Our cheese has always been made from our own milk, and that’s where it finishes.
A very big thank-you goes to Tone Petersen, our cheesemaker. Plenty of you have watched him at work through the café windows, and every wheel on our counter has been through his hands. We’re proud of what he’s made here.
What’s staying
The café and farm shop are staying open. Same hours, same coffee, same platters, same view over the paddocks, same welcome when you walk in. For the coffee and milkshakes, we’ll be supporting another small producer by buying their milk for the café.
There’s still plenty of Bassine cheese to come, too. We have a good store of our own cheeses maturing in the cool room, and they’ll be on the counter for months yet. The soft cheeses, like the Bassine Queen brie, will go first, so if you have a favourite, don’t leave it too long. The harder, aged cheeses will see us through 2027.
As our own cheese runs down, Kaye will fill the counter with a hand-picked selection from other cheesemakers we admire. We’ve never made a blue ourselves. It has always come from a supplier we trust, so the one many of you already come in for isn’t going anywhere. Kaye has been choosing cheese for this counter for years, and she’ll choose these the same way: cheeses she’d happily put on her own table.
Thank you
To everyone who has bought a bottle of our milk, taken home a wheel of cheese, or stopped in for a coffee on the way to the Island: thank you. You’ve kept this farm going for a long time.
We’d love you to keep coming in. Pull up a chair, have a coffee and a platter, and enjoy our own cheese while it’s here. You’ll find our opening hours and directions on the Visit page.
See you at the farm.
— Kaye & Glen, and the Bassine family