Blessed are the cheesemakers
ANNIE NIEUWENHUIS
Nieuwenhuis Farmstead Cheese
Annie Nieuwenhuis adores her goats, and loves handmaking cheese from their milk.
“It’s magic,” she says. “You take this liquid from the milk can, pour it into a 70-litre pot, pop it in the water bath and watch it turn into a solid cheese that people love to eat.”
She and husband Geoff, who were recently named this country’s Champion Cheesemakers at the New Zealand Cheese Awards, started Nieuwenhuis Farmstead Cheese in central Hawke’s Bay after discovering a previously unexplored love for goats. They’d been rearing calves on their farm when Annie, “on a bit of a whim”, suggested she might try raising a handful of goats. That was in 2006, and Annie was instantly hooked.
While the trained veterinarian dabbled in making a bit of cheese from the milk in her country kitchen, she, Geoff and their family of five wanted to know more. “We decided to take some time out to travel the world when the kids were aged six to 16, and during our trip we looked into different aspects of cheesemaking,
