The Producers, a Food Podcast. · A Deep in the Weeds Production

Ann-Marie Monda and Carla Meurs (Holy Goat Cheese) - life choices, connection and commitment

·24 min

Anne-Marie Monda says she never wanted to milk goats and sell the milk as a commodity. She wanted the work to go further than that. Carla Murs puts the same instinct into plainer terms. The effort should go into looking after the goats, creating perfect milk, and turning it into cheese with care. Holy Goat Cheese is made at Sutton Grange. The farm sits in a regional landscape that matters to the product. The cheeses include fresh styles, rind-ripened cheeses, and semi-hard cheeses. Each one reflects the milk that went into it. The conversation keeps returning to feedback. Good cheese tells you about good milk. Good milk tells you about healthy goats. Healthy goats depend on the soils and pastures that support them. That loop gives the work its rhythm. The morning milking leads into cheese making. The day moves through the cheese room. The evening brings the goats back again. Carla and Anne-Marie clearly value that cycle. They talk about the pleasure of the goats' company and their intelligence. They also talk about respect. When food becomes a commodity, some of that respect is lost. That is why they resist treating milk as just another product. Their own milk is precious enough that losing a litre is devastating. In winter, they do not even drink it themselves because they want it reserved for cheese. The point is not scarcity for its own sake. It is a way of saying the milk deserves full attention. Making cheese also calls for constant alertness. The process depends on subtle judgments about texture, smell, appearance, and adaptation. If something goes wrong, the work becomes hard and exacting. When it goes right, the cheese room is full of satisfying tasks, from ladling to handling the curds. They are drawn to the science as well. The work leads them into journals and experiments and new ways of thinking about food. The episode widens from the farm into the region. Carla and Anne-Marie argue that the closer food stays to where it comes from, the stronger the regional culture becomes. They want people to remember the animal behind the cheese and the labour behind the meal. A beautiful piece of lamb should carry gratitude for the animal. A beautiful piece of cheese should carry gratitude for the work, the dedication, and the place that made it possible. That is the values framework behind Holy Goat Cheese. It is practical, but it is also deeply relational. The cheese comes out of attention given to goats, soils, milk, and season, day after day.

As heard by us

A patient portrait of goat cheese shaped by herd health, milk quality, and the local soils and pastures that support it.

Holy Goat cheese follows Anne-Marie Monda and Carla Murs through a working life shaped by goats, milk, and the patient work of turning that milk into fresh, rind-ripened, and semi-hard cheeses.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want goat cheese treated like serious craft, not a garnish.

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