VEGAN CHEESE please!
By Melissa McCullough Photos Yanni
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n Dromana high quality, artisan vegan cheese and butter options for those who do not, or cannot, eat animal products are readily available. Made using traditional handmade techniques, The Vegan Dairy’s journey was born from the love of a mother in memory of her son. From then the businesses journey has continued to evolve with husband and wife co-creators Brittany and Bronson stepping up to the helm.
As her business grew and grew, she brought Brittany in to lend a helping hand. At the time, Brittany was vegetarian and was excited for the opportunity to help get beautiful cheeses into the market that were animal rennet free. Brittany says, “Since then I have learned about some amazing cheese making techniques (and made some challenging blunders) that have enabled me to experiment with my own ideas.”
In 2010 the family suffered a great loss when Brittany’s 14-year-old brother, Reagan, was involved in a scuba diving accident and, despite three weeks in intensive care, he never recovered. Brittany recalls, “At the time my mum, a chef and cooking teacher by trade, picked up a number of ‘activities’ to help her through her grief.” One of those was a course in handcrafted cheesemaking and this quickly became something she developed a deep affection for, as cheese was something Reagan loved. In keeping herself busy she made too many cheeses for our family and started giving them away to friends. And then there was too much for the friends and those friends gave some to other friends. Eventually everyone wanted more and more and her own dairy cheese making business began.
For Brittany and Bronson, being vegetarian for several years, preferring to eat lighter food options without sacrificing taste or quality, and finding alternatives that truly rivalled “the real thing” was a big challenge. Brittany decided to use what she learnt from working with her mum to do something about it so that they had delicious dairy-free options at home. Their first product was the Persian Feta. “We didn’t plan for The Vegan Dairy to become a business. We simply gave my mum some jars of our dairy-free feta, at her request, to take to the markets for her lactose intolerant customers and they loved it!”, said Brittany. When everyone started coming back over and over, The Vegan Dairy came to life.
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34 | PENINSULA
October 2020
Enter the accidental beauty that has become The Vegan Dairy.