BARAMBAH Organics is best known for its milk which serious foodies in Sydney and Melbourne hail as somewhat of a national treasure.

This is old-fashioned, non-homogenised stuff – with thick cream on the top – and is used to make Brisbane’s best cappuccinos and cafe lattes.

After branching out into butter and yoghurt production, Ian and Jane Campbell started making cheeses in 2005 and these are starting to pick up awards.

Judges at the recent Dairy Industry Association awards in Queensland selected Barambah Crow’s Ash Brie as the overall champion product.

What you get is a rich, creamy brie with a white mould exterior and a coating of vineyard ash.

As it ages the skin gets crunchy and the middle becomes oozy, golden and mushroomy.

The name comes from the crow’s ash trees that Ian Campbell planted on the family’s Spring Creek farm near Murgon.

His Fig Tree Paddock double brie is named after a Spring Creek pasture dominated by a big old Moreton Bay fig.

Nowadays, the Campbells’ main dairy herd grazes under river redgums at their Glenarbon property on the Dumaresq River between Texas and Yelarbon.

This isn’t traditional dairy country and a few of the old-school locals were a bit sceptical about how friesians would go in their neck of the woods.

The herd is now thriving on perennial lucerne, and certified organic grains and molasses. There is plenty of water from the river and bores and no cattle ticks. The river soils are responding well to organic farming and the earthworms are thriving.

Cheesemaker Timothy Gadischke – who trained at Kingaroy and Witches Chase at Mount Tamborine – also produces quark and fetta and a new labna, which is a yoghurt cheese popular in Lebanon and Israel.

Traditionally it is made in the home by wrapping the yoghurt in muslin and draining it over a pot.

Once the mixture solidifies it is rolled into walnut-sized balls. Gadischke adds sea salt and fennel seeds to his version. Jane Campbell uses the balls to stuff boned-out lamb roasts. Otherwise use them as a spread on crusty bread or instead of bocconcini in garden salads.

These products are made at Barambah’s Oxley plant and are widely available. For more information, go to www.barambahorganics.com.au.

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