Maryland Farmhouse Starter Cultures Traditional Mixed Cultures in Frozen Pint Bottle Form

The Origin of Starter Cultures Lactose in milk creates an environment selective for Lactic Acid Bacteria –Early days : Naturally present milk-borne LA bacteria originating from vegetation and rumen contents, naturally soured the milk. Samples kept for next days cheese-making –Unreliable, but selective retention of samples of best shared between farmhouse kitchens and dairies. Haphazard process until late 1940’s –Commercial suppliers began supplying inocula from best ‘natural sourers.’ –Eventually commercial companies ‘cleaned up’ the best starters and produced clotted inocula initially and then frozen or freeze-dried forms. During use in dairies these would have ‘evolved’. –Reliable undefined starters can be very stable and phage resistant if there are no dominant components

The History of Maryland Starters at AJ and RG Barbers Pasteurised milk : Flavour of mature cheese dependent on enzymes from mixed strain starters, less from NSLAB and other bacteria. Traditionally-grown mixed cultures produce a clean and complex flavour without pronounced sweetness Barbers are the largest Farmhouse Cheese-makers using a traditional system under very clean conditions controlling non-starter lactics Ray Osborne recruited by Nicky Barber to install a custom built culture production Unit. Traditional undefined mixed cultures manufactured and developed, allowing flexibility of rotations to minimize ‘phage risk. Cultures produced commercially for all the needs of A.J.& R.G Barber and for other outside customers. Because the manufacturing process is gentle (SMP only) the complete range of strains remains viable, unlike cultures concentrated by freeze-drying or centrifugation.

Where do the Cultures Come from? During the 1950’s to 1980’s Unigate shared dominance of the UK Dairy Industry. Starter cultures collected from dairies, farmhouse cheese-makers and agricultural colleges. John Elwyn Lewis made improvements to the starter preparation systems within the Unigate Company. Many cultures derived from original Lewis Unigate starters used as inoculated but unincubated pints for the preparation of bulk starter, and thus have a 60 year pedigree. The Maryland Farm ‘Traditional’ starter collection contains the most reliable of these numbers producing the best flavours.

MARYLAND FARMHOUSE FROZEN STARTER CULTURES Undefined Mixes of : - Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis - Lactococcus lactis subsp cremoris - Lactococcus lactis biovariety diacetylactis - Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp cremoris 22 Cultures from Collections Dating to 1960’S MTsMARYLAND TRADITIONAL UNDEFINED BLENDS - MT24 (FD) MT27 (1224) MT30 (1607) MT33 (1774) - MT25 (1213) MT28(1308) MT31 (1608) MT34 (1815) - MT26 (1222) MT29(1449) MT32 (1609) MT35 (1830). MLs3 – 5 COMPONENTS (CONTAIN AT LEAST ONE ORIGINAL LEWIS CULTURE) -ML61ML64MD29ML84ML33 ML85 PMs‘PHAGE MODIFIED BLENDS - PM48PM35PM69PM49