Australia’s first ever sheep, camel, goat and Jersey milk cheese — the result of a flood-inspired collaboration between four Scenic Rim producers — has officially been launched.
Widespread floods earlier this year devastated many farms in southern Queensland.
Among these was Towri Sheep Cheeses at Allenview, a leading agri-tourism operator and producer of award-winning cheeses made from milk from their Awassi herd.
“The floods caused absolute devastation to our business, livestock and family farm, including the collapse of our main water supply,” Towri’s Dallas Davidson said.
“Milk production went down 100 per cent as our dairy was completely flooded, and we were unable to deliver to our wonderful restaurant clients due to floodwaters and road closures.
“It was pretty horrid ... but, we emptied our gumboots, dried out our work gear and thought about how we could keep moving forward.
“Then, it hit us, we simply ask our friends — two and four-legged.”
During the drought, Towri Sheep Cheeses collaborated with Tommerup’s Dairy Farm, in the Kerry Valley on the other side of Beaudesert, to create Moo & Ewe — a Jersey and sheep milk range, which continues to this day.
“We thought — let’s take this further,” Dallas said.
“We live in the glorious Scenic Rim, a region of dairies, of inspiring producers and of truly creative partnerships born of Eat Local Week, so let’s create a collaboration cheese.”
Towri Sheep Cheeses and Tommerup’s Dairy Farm, with Summer Land Camels and Naughty Little Kids near Boonah, pooled their milk resources.
Carolyn Davidson, Dallas’s mum and Towri’s head cheesemaker, then went to work.
After much trial and error, EWE+3 was born.
“To our knowledge this is an Australian first, and could very well be a world first,” Dallas said.
Thanks to the complexity of the different milks, EWE+3 is rich in taste.
It is a cooked, natural rind cheese, with earthy, buttery and pear undertones and a touch of sharpness from the sheep’s milk.
Some of the top restaurants in Queensland are carrying EWE+3, with inquiries already received from interstate restaurants.
It is also available at Towri’s farmers’ markets.