Cornish Wild Garlic Yarg

Our May Cheese of the Month is Cornish Wild Garlic Yarg. The original Cornish Yarg was first produced on Bodmin Moor by a farmer called Alan Gray who had found a seventeenth century recipe for a nettle wrapped cheese in the attic and decided to give it a go! The name Yarg simply comes from the backward spelling of Alan’s surname; Gray.

Wild Garlic Yarg uses the same recipe as the Cornish Yarg, but rather than wrapping the cheese in nettles, it is wrapped in the pungent Ramson leaves that arrive in their woodlands each Spring. The leaves impart a gentle garlicky flavour and their moisture gives the cheese a slightly firm texture. The striking difference in taste is all down to the leaves and their effect on the cheese as it matures.

Wild Garlic Yarg has won various awards, including Gold at the British Cheese Awards in 2016, Super Gold at the World Cheese Awards in 2015 and ‘Best Flavour Added Cheese’ at the British Cheese Awards in 2015.