His boundless curiosity, excellent palate and fascination for cheese blew me away and in his column in the Observer the following week he dubbed cheese "sexy" and "the new rock and roll" and said he wanted to make his own.

Over the next few months, stories appeared about Alex’s cheese but like the Emperor’s new clothes, the cheese did not exist. Then in April 2007 Alex called for help: "Everyone is talking about my cheese and I don’t have one. What can I do?" It was like spontaneous combustion – I found myself spilling out my dreams of all the cheeses I wanted to make and he painted a picture of his plans and aspirations for the farm.

Thus the Evenlode Partnership was born. Our aim, to develop a range of cheeses and other products, including some produced on his farm, of exceptional quality, made by artisan producers, using local ingredients and traditional methods.