Mahoe cheese

Jacob Rosevear inspects some of the award-winning Mahoe Cheese.Bob Rosevear - founder (along with his wife Anna) of Mahoe Cheese.It is towards the end of 1991 and Bob and Anna Rosevear from Oromahoe are in a hotel in far east Russia having dinner with the First Secretary of the local Communist Party. A television is playing in the background and whatever was on is suddenly stopped and replaced with a performance of the ballet, Swan Lake.

They switched channels and Swan Lake is playing on that channel too, and another and another. It was relatively clear something wasn't right even if they or, indeed, the Communist Party Secretary didn't quite know what - but it didn't take long to find out. President Mikhail Gorbachev had been deposed.

The Rosevears (and at various times including sons Tim, Jacob and Jesse) were consultants to Sovenz, a subsiairy of the then NZ Dairy Board, and in Russia to teach cheese-making mainly in Kharbarovsk in the north east of Russia just 30 kilometres from the Chinese border, and on Sahkalin Island, Russia's largest island situated north of Japan. After the Gorbachev coup they were phoned by the NZ Dairy Board to ask if they were okay and were advised somewhat phlegmatically that this was Russian politics and in 24 hours it would all be over. It was, but the putsch had significant consequences for the country since it eventually lead to the dissolution of the USSR.

In fact Bob was in Russia again, in St Petersburg, when a subsequent putsch took place. He was watching a live performance of Swan Lake this time, when Boris Yeltzin was replaced by Vladimir Putin. So Mr Rosevear can rightly say he has played a personal part (certainly unwittingly and only in the way of serendipity) in two significant episodes of Russian political history.

Where did it all begin? Bob and Anna met at college in Wellington, met up at university again and married and moved north in 1974. They were orchardists before becoming dairy farmers in Oromahoe and had been buying cheese from a supplier in Whangarei who decided to quit the business. Anna had made cheese in the family kitchen and these two facts seemed to go together although, as they were about to discover, it's a quantum leap from domestic to commercial cheese production. And it wasn't an investment made lightly because interest rates in 1986 were hovering around 25 per cent. Still, they borrowed some money from a rural bank, bought up some of the cheese-making equipment and dived in.

The Cheesery was built adjacent to the milking shed on the family Mahoe Farm just south of the Puketona Junction on State Highway 10. Mahoe Farmhouse Cheese has subsequently grown in size and surely in reputation. All their products are seasonal, totally GE free and they only use vegetarian rennet and in March this year they won two major trophies at the Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards. Jacob picked up the top award as champion cheese-maker and their very old Edam won the artisan cheese category.

Mahoe Cheese is sold all around New Zealand, from the factory shop at Oromahoe and the farmers' market in Kerikeri and Whangarei. Bob says it's 'great' to get back to grass roots to sell to the community and to talk to buyers. All the family, now including Hannah (partner of Jacob) and Eva (partner of Jesse) is involved in either the cheese-making or the dairy farm.

There will be some changes to the future cheese line-up. They are currently preparing the prototypes of more exotic cheeses before making them available to what has always been a very willing public. - Sandy Myhre