Denmark Farmhouse Cheese

Cheese has always been an important staple in my family's kitchen. Yet when my parents first settled in Australia in the 1950s, the Australian culinary landscape offered none of the diversity or richness we take for granted today. And as a Swiss, my late mother was particularly struck by how few varieties of cheeses were on offer.

In her early years in Sydney she found herself in a perpetual state of culinary culture shock as she tried to find kitchen essentials such as fresh herbs, vanilla beans and saffron – to name a few. She loved to recall her first visit to the food hall at David Jones in Market Street (an upmarket department store) where she asked the counter hand "what sort of cheese do you have?" The reply came back, "Tasty or mild. Which would you like, love?"

So it was with this memory, as well as with thoughts of my father (for whom ambrosia was a slice of dark rye bread with a piece of good cheese), that we decided to make a visit to Denmark Farmhouse Cheese, which also incorporates Ducketts Mill Wines.

Situated on a grassy hillside, Denmark Farmhouse Cheese overlooks a vista of undulating grazing country punctuated by substantial stands of eucalypts. The business is a family affair run by cheesemakers Ross and Dallas Lewis, their son Matt (who primarily looks after the vineyard), and his wife Tina.

The combined cheese shop and cellar door encompasses a small café/tasting area with a cosy (and today, packed) balcony, where you can enjoy a sample of their cheeses together with a glass of wine. Cheese varieties include Denmark White (a Camembert style), Nullaki Soft (a Brie style, named after the Nullaki Peninsula, east of Denmark), Maude’s Triple Cream (another Camembert, this one much more creamy), Wilson’s Fetta (available in plain, sundried tomatoes and olives, chilli, and garlic) and finally Scottsdale (a Dutch style cheese, available plain, or with either cumin seeds, garlic and chives, or pepper).

Despite it being an unusually busy day, the staff manning the tasting counter are enthusiastic and friendly, happy to tell stories about the wine and cheese, offer sizeable tastes with endless patience and provide recommendations of wine and cheese matchings.

Too early for too much to eat, we settle on a Fetta Boat (a selection of all three fettas) and a couple of glasses of the 2005 Ducketts Mill Riesling. Unfortunately we only taste the wines at the counter and not the cheese. When the Fetta Boat arrives, it's a slight disappointment – rather dense and slightly rubbery, and the additional flavourings don't take it to a higher level. In contrast, the Denmark White and Scotsdale with cumin (which we buy for later consumption) both turn out to be good quality cheeses that we’d certainly buy again. Similarly, the wine is a good example of cool climate Riesling, showing a light fragrant nose with a minerally palate and a long, well-balanced citrus finish.

In addition to wine and cheese, the Lewis family also produces a wide range of handmade preserves and fudges that can be purchased at the farmhouse as well as online.

DENMARK FARMHOUSE CHEESE and DUCKETTS MILL WINES, Scotsdale Road, Denmark 6333, Western Australia are open seven days a week. Phone (618) 9840 9844.

Berry Delicious, Denmark WA

Summer time is berry time, but nothing compares to the deep flavours and zesty vitamin C tang of fully ripe fresh berries that you've picked in the cool of the early morning. And that is just what we experience when visiting Bramble Farm in Denmark, on the southwest coast of Western Australia.

We come across Bramble Farm by accident while driving along the Scotsdale Tourist Drive (a scenic route that leads west from Denmark) in search of Denmark Farmhouse Cheese. Along the way, a gravel side road lined with beautiful white barked eucalyptus beckons us to take a spontaneous detour. And there, about 300 metres along the road and up a hill, we spot the sign for a berry farm and drive in, not knowing what to expect.

After parking under a shady tree beside a bevy of reclining bovines, we proceed toward the farm shed to find out what's available.

There are four or five other people already picking berries, but before we are let loose to do our own picking, the farm owner gives us a quick tour through the trellised brambles. He points out the different varieties (raspberries, silvan blackberries, youngberries, boysenberries and loganberries) and shows us how to tell whether or not they are ripe. He also demonstrates the different picking techniques: blackberries are gently twisted - if ripe they pull away easily; raspberries are gently pulled so that berry pulls clear of its internal white pith.

We pick to our hearts content - pick and sample - and the punnet pictured above costs just $12 – a bargain compared to the prices of supermarket berries that are many days away from being freshly picked.

Bramble Berry Farm also sells homemade berry ice cream as well as several different types of farm produced berry jam. We sample the ice cream (delicious!) and buy a loganberry and a boysenberry jam, both of which are quite sensational.

DENMARK BRAMBLE BERRY FARM, Lot 8 Lantzke Road, off Scotsdale Tourist Drive, Denmark 6333, Western Australia, is certainly worth a detour. However best to contact them beforehand on (618) 9848 1436 to see what berries are available. They are open daily during school holidays; otherwise on weekends.