Here’s everything you need to know about ordering cheese from us for Christmas 2023. We will update this blog regularly in during November and December.
Final Delivery Dates
The final order deadline is likely to be midnight on Friday 8th December.
Final deliveries will take place on 14th or 15th December, depending on your postcode. You can order cheese now and schedule delivery on the date of your choice.
Ordering in advance rather than last minute is recommended because delivery slots can fill up.
Cheese Availability
Availability of most cheeses is currently good, some points to note below:
- Bluebell & Selection Packs - new Bluebell batches will be ready mid December, and these products are available for pre-order now
- Skinny Gold - is now sold out
- Cheddar and Skinny Red are newly back in stock. Availability is currently good, but we expect demand to be high, particularly for Cheddar
- Barlocco Blue - is currently out of stock, but will return in early December, keep an eye on our social media if you'd like to order this cheese
- Cooking Cheese & Blue Crumb - also currently out of stock, but expected to return
Standard Shelf Life
The standard shelf life for our cheese is 4 weeks for blue cheeses and Rainton Tomme, and 5 weeks for all others.
500g wedges of hard cheese typically have longer best before dates of around 45 days.
No-Plastic Shelf Life
If you select 'No Plastic' during checkout, the shelf life of your cheeses will be significantly shortened to 14 days at most. ‘No Plastic’ orders will have 14 days on them from dispatch. This means that any No Plastic orders will be dated to 27th December at the latest.
We absolutely understand why many of our customers prefer no plastic. However, if you want to enjoy cheese throughout the festive period, we recommend standard packaging.
Packaging Recycling & Reuse
The plastic wraps used for our cheese are OPA - polyamide nylon - and PE - polyethylene. Please wash them thoroughly and add to your household plastic recycling. The chill packs are not recyclable, but they are reusable and can be refrozen for use in lunch boxes or cool bags. The wool insulation is reusable and compostable, our suppliers, Woolcool, have lots of reuse ideas on their website.
A Dairy Story Book
David and Wilma's book is now available to order as a paperback through Amazon. This is a 'print-on-demand' book, which means it's accessible for people internationally, which is something we've been wanting to make happen for a while. You'll find full details and links to the Amazon listings on this page.
Digital Gifts
Digital Gift Vouchers and Subscription Gift Vouchers can be purchased at any time, including as last minute emergency gifts. You can add a personal message, and you’ll receive the voucher as a PDF which you can print or forward to the recipient.
For Subscription Gift Vouchers, the voucher will let the recipient choose the start date of their subscription, and will also let them choose their cheese preferences, for example, no blue cheese.
Gift vouchers for Cheese Making Courses are available to buy via Cream o' Galloway, which is the venue for those workshops.
Buy In Person
We are taking part in various farmers' markets and Christmas fairs. You can find a list of the events we're taking part in here.
You can also buy retail packs of cheese at Cream o' Galloway, and at our regular stockists. Please note that our stockist list is updated infrequently so please contact the retailer in advance to check whether they have our cheese if you're making a special trip.
January Delivery
Our team take a break over the festive season, but if you need to contact us you can email us on hello@theethicaldairy.co.uk
Cheese deliveries will resume on Wednesday 10th January 2024.