When monks make cheese, it isn’t just food. It’s patience, craft, and something deeper, a rhythm of life that turns work itself into prayer.
I learned this the day I accompanied Fr Gregory to Sharpham Dairy. I’ll admit, I underestimated the experience. I expected a morning of quiet observation. Instead, I was swept into a world of stainless steel, steam, and clockwork precision.
The Sharpham team — Greg, Peter, Chris, Claudia, and Nicky — are artisans in the truest sense. Cheesemaking here is no hobby: it’s an orchestra of motion. Timers rang, curds splashed, hands moved fast and sure. At first it looked like chaos. Then, slowly, I realised what I was seeing: control, foresight, skill so honed it looked effortless. Hours disappeared in a blur. And right there in the thick of it was Fr Gregory — sleeves rolled up to the elbows in curd, utterly at home.
Sharpham’s craft is extraordinary. But what struck me most was Fr Gregory’s humility. He never stopped listening, learning, encouraging — even asking, mid-process, if his fellow cheesemakers had tried the Monks’ Dawn lager or Monks’ Nectar ale, that he gave them a crate of. That’s him: energy and care, hand in hand.
By noon, the fruit of the morning’s labour stood before us: Cloister, a soft, characterful cheese inspired by Normandy but shaped by Devon’s land and climate. And Chapter House, golden, crumbly, and citrus-bright, rustic in the best sense of the word. Two cheeses with names rooted in monastic life, crafted through a partnership of monks and makers.
This is why Monks’ Kitchen chose Sharpham. Their values mirror ours: tradition, care, hospitality, collaboration. Together we’re not simply producing cheese. We’re carrying forward a living tradition — something honest, grounded, and quietly remarkable. As Fr Gregory put it “We love their Cheese”.
Now it’s your turn. Try it. Talk about it. Share it. You are the best ambassadors we have. When you take Cloisters or Chapter House home, you’re not just enjoying excellent cheese. You’re helping sustain a way of life: real food, real people, real tradition.
Monasteries once stood as centres of learning, craft, and true hospitality. Monks Kitchen is our step back into that rhythm. And it begins — quite fittingly — with cheese.
Hamish Gregory
Media Department
