Killeen Farmhouse Cheese

East Galway cheesemaker Marion Roeleveld is well known for her excellent gouda-style Killeen Farmhouse Cheese. She trained as a cheesemaker in the Netherlands before coming to Ireland and has assisted in the development of other cheeses as well as building up her own business from about 2005 onwards.

While most cheesemakers specialise in using one type of milk, she makes both goat’s cheese - using pasteurised milk from her own grass-fed goats - and another version using pasteurised milk from a local farmer’s cows, and there are variations on both.

Killeen Goat’s Cheese is made in a 4.5kg wheel using traditional rennet; available plain and with herbs, it is very pale and dense with an orangey rind. It is mild when sold young and gains flavour with age (3 months onwards).

Killeen Cow’s Cheese is also made in a 4.5kg wheel using traditional rennet, available plain and with herbs. Semi firm and pale yellow, with a deep yellow rind, it is sold from 3 months onwards and it gains a more tangy flavour with age.

They are versatile cheeses and equally at home on a cheeseboard, in salads, with a chunk of crusty bread for a ploughman’s lunch, or used in cooking.

East Galway cheesemaker Marion Roeleveld is well known for her excellent gouda-style Killeen Farmhouse Cheese. She trained as a cheesemaker in the Netherlands before coming to Ireland and has assisted in the development of other cheeses as well as building up her own business from about 2005 onwards.

While most cheesemakers specialise in using one type of milk, she makes both goat’s cheese - using pasteurised milk from her own grass-fed goats - and another version using pasteurised milk from a local farmer’s cows, and there are variations on both.

You’ll see plain and flavoured cheeses at varying stages of maturity at Sheridans, speciality shops in Galway and at On the Pig’s Back in Cork, also at farmers’ markets - and on menus, especially in the West.