On Sundays, he cuts the cheese.

I’m a full week and a day behind. This blog isn’t meant to be a real-time daily account, but I do wish I were more current with it. It’s Sunday, July 3, and I’m sitting on a huge beech tree stump in a cemetery just outside of the Cork city limits. Fred is looking for meaningful tombstones.

Now, back to Day Two with the Fernsebners in southwest Kerry. It was slow morning… lots of coffee, tea, granola, brown bread, peanut butter, honey and yogurt. (Having run with Natalie for quite some time, I’ve been in her kitchen every Sunday morning for 15 years. So I know what they like for breakfast.) Fred did some walking research without us, but it proved too wet for him — and that says a lot. He won’t stop at a mere drizzle. Nat and Chris and I walked to the beach and then on to Kells Garden — an exotic plant estate set up with walking paths and “chain saw art,” clearly added recently to appeal to families with kids. Most of them were dinosaurs. It was POURING which led the German tourists to all huddle in the small bar with beers and coffees.  We logged four miles there and back.

We walked across this scary rope bridge, high above a rushing river. 

We then met Fred at the house where we ate, drank, napped, and left to meet Brian Lynch (Fred’s contact here) at 4:00 at the beach and follow him to his home and cheese room. The cheese room was immaculate and fascinating.  Twice-weekly, he fills a tank on wheels with 800 liters of Kerry cow milk (rare breed small black Kerry cows only in this county) and dumps it into his vat where he makes the cheese.  There are all kinds of other details like pouring it into molds (he has about 16 of these which form the wheels) and adding weights (he uses kettle bells!) to keep adding pressure on top of them to squeeze out the liquid. This liquid goes into a drain on the floor and out into his field.  Once the liquid is gone, the wheels go into another room where he needs to turn them four times a day (!). And on Sunday, he cuts the cheese. Note sure which wheels and how often, but needless to say, I, at least, had to stifle a giggle over this! 

Brian uses the “Royal We” when speaking about his trade, but it’s just him, and he makes two kinds:  Kerry cow hard cheese and another cow cheese made with dillisk seaweed. They taste a little different according to how long they’re aged (one-two years). Fred pressed Brian about exactly what kind of cheese this “hard cheese” is. It’s “hard cheese,” said Brian. The Kells Bay Cheese logo and cheese-wedge-shaped package design are fantastic. 

Photo credit to Kells Bay Cheese Instagram

After the complete tour, we joined his wife, Anne Marie, in their lovely kitchen/living area overlooking the Bay for a tasting. VERY memorable. We were glad we had our friends there to enjoy with us since they had included us on an amazing wine tour and tasting in Umbria several years ago. Now we’re even : ) 

We talked like old friends and had a lovely time. Anne Marie grew up Catholic in Northern Ireland, which was fascinating to hear about. 

From here, we went on to dinner at a pub in Glenbeigh at their suggestion — a town equidistant in the other direction from Cahersiveen. They advised us that there is a bartender — a small man — who also plays the piano if you urge him. Well, we didn’t have to because it was a baby’s first birthday, so once he sat down to play “Happy Birthday,” he never got up. He would glance around the room over his shoulder as if scanning the crowd for anyone paying attention. We four always were, which I think is why he played “Danny Boy,” an American favorite.

The Birthday Boy

Food was good! I had hake, which apparently has replaced cod around here, with pesto coated potatoes, and a side of potatoes. :) Chris had a toastie (toasted sandwich) that he thought was set up like a club sandwich and ate two halves simultaneously. 

Hake with potatoes

With a side of potatoes

From what I recall, we went right home to bed.