Chris & Jeff Reade, and now their sons, make cheese twice a day at the only dairy on the Isle of Mull, Sgriob-ruadh Farm. The cows are milked three times a day to yield extra milk and the milk moves literally feet to the cheese making tables. Jeff believes the less the milk is handled, the better the cheese. Nearly all of the cheese made begins as cheddar, which ages wrapped in cheesecloth on long wooden shelves in the cellar below the cheesemaking floor. Each 50 lb wheel is turned each week for months, and when Jeff thinks the cheese is worthy of a taste, he tests just one wheel of the batch. If it doesn't taste 'right' off the shelves it goes and it is grated and mixed with herbs or garlic or some other strong flavor and pressed into rounds. Only the best cheese continues the long, slow process of aging to become Tobermory Cheddar.
