Entering the cheese store at Westcombe Dairy, the distinct aroma and cave-like humidity give way to an awesome sight – 1,000 mummified Cheddars slowly maturing before your eyes. This is one of the few remaining dairies that still practises age-old methods when transforming unpasteurised milk into 24kg hand-crafted cheeses. The process is very, very slow - the antithesis of routine fast-food methods, as Westcombe Dairy’s Tom Calver explains. “Some cheeses mature for up to two years. People don’t understand how long and the effort it takes to produce good food.”

The resulting taste is well worth the wait – a creamy, subtle Cheddar with a delicate but definite flavour reflecting the sweet pastures of Evercreech in Somerset, where Westcombe is based.

Westcombe Cheddar is one of only three cheeses entitled to the Slow Food Foundation’s designation ‘Artisan Somerset Cheddar’, one of six ‘Presidia’ in the UK. These are special projects intended to protect foods currently at risk of disappearing. Fal Oysters and Old Gloucester Beef are also included along with a huge variety of artisan produce worldwide. Tom Calver welcomes this support, which also involves safeguarding the use of raw milk. “We want to continue to produce food in an artisan way and hope Slow Food can protect us from any legislation in the future,” he says.

The Slow Food movement (of which the Slow Food Foundation is a part) was founded by author and cook Carlo Petrini in 1989 as a direct response to McDonald’s opening a branch near the Spanish Steps in Rome. The initial aim was to re-educate people about the taste of ‘real’ food grown by small-scale producers and to make a stand against the hegemony of the multinational food companies. It has since developed to respond to associated environmental concerns, as Slow Food UK co-ordinator Fiona Richmond explains: “The term ‘eco-gastronomy’ reflects the shift in the movement to show that it was not enough to talk about food that simply tasted good, but that it must pay attention to the environmental impact of food and its production.”

Slow Food promotes the concept of ‘good, clean and fair’, which means food that tastes delicious, is grown using sustainable methods that respect biodiversity and provides an adequate wage for the producer. “Cheap food comes at a price, in terms of damage to the environment, loss of taste and the impact on the producers,” says Fiona Richmond.

Slow Food UK was launched last year and has its headquarters in Ludlow, although 47 voluntary groups, known as ‘convivia’, already exist in the UK, stretching from Bristol, which holds a monthly Slow Food market, to Skye, which hosted the inaugural conference of Slow Food UK.

With 80,000 international members and growing daily, Slow Food’s message is spreading quickly. “Fast food producers should stand up and take notice. If we can show people a better way by educating them through taste and the pleasure and enjoyment of good food, then the bad will crumble,” says Fiona.

Meanwhile, you can join the more than one million people from around the world who have already tuned in to watch a famous Slow Food Cheddar maturing via an ingenious webcam link at Westcombe Dairy. “The response has been fantastic,” says Tom Calver. “Food doesn’t get slower than this!”

Join Slow Food at www.slowfood.com or www.slowfood.org.uk

Watch a delicious Westcombe Cheddar slowly maturing at www.cheddarvision.tv

written by Morag Massey. Morag has worked as a researcher/producer for BBC Radio4. She is currently writing plays. She is passionate about the food we eat and how it's production impacts on our health and enjoyment, as well as the impact on the producers and the environment.