Cheese Farm
The name Stonehouse comes from the old toll house on the farm , hidden from sight higher up the mountain.
The Farm
The Stonehouse is the old toll house on the wagon trail that crossed the Klein Rivier where today stands a wooden bridge. The house dates back to 1772. Today the cottage up in the mountains is a rustic breakaway for people wanting a quiet time, walking in …
The Herd
Rotterdam Estates and Stonehouse milk over 500 jersey cows on two separate farms. These magnificent dairy animals are built to endure the elements of the Southern Cape. Our ladies are the sweetest animals to work with and rarely complain…
The Cheese
Our primary goal is to produce magnificant white mould cheese. Brie and Camembert plain and with sutle flavours added such as black pepper and green fig. our guide will be to try and keep all our products as natural as possible and listen to the consumer…
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THE FARM
The Stonehouse is the old toll house on the wagon trail that crossed the Klein Rivier where today stands a wooden bridge. The house dates back to 1772. Today the cottage up in the mountains is a rustic breakaway for people wanting a quiet time, walking in the mountains, braaing, canoeing, cycling, or swimming in the river.
The farm has a dairy and will now add a veal production unit and pig unit to drink up all the whey that will come out of the factory. The farm has a history of dairy, vegitables, onions and was known as TemmersTuin. There are rumours that boxes of gold stolen off the sinking Birkenhead were thrown into the See Koei Gat (deep hippo pools on the Klein River). Some day we will find it.
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THE HERD
Rotterdam Estates and Stonehouse milk over 500 jersey cows on two separate farms. These magnificent dairy animals are built to endure the elements of the Southern Cape. Our ladies are the sweetest animals to work with and rarely complain. We use mainly imported semen on our cows and raise most of our heifers. Every now and again we must use the bull to cover someone struggling to get pregnant.
Our one herd is at Buffeljagsrivier near Swellendam while the other is on the farm Stonehouse near Stanford. All together there must be close to 1000 animals on the farms.
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THE CHEESE
Our primary goal is to produce magnificant white mould cheeses. Brie and Camembert, plain and with sutle flavours added such as black pepper and green fig. our guide will be to try and keep all our products as natural as possible and listen to the consumer. We will also make yogurts trying to keep away from sugar and give a health product to drink and snack on throughout the day. Clotted cream that will go with all jams and scones is one of my favourites. We will also slowly start producing hard cheeses.
My mothers favorite Swiss cheese is a Tete de Moine and strangely enough our cheese maker has chosen this as one of his favourites. There are restrictions on the names that one can use so we will call ours the “tears of the moon” to go along with the natural theme. Some of our hard cheeses will carry the brand of Rotterdam our family farm from 1794 in Swellendam.
About Stonehouse Cheese
The Stonehouse Cheese factory is situated on the R326 at the mouth of the Akkedis Berg Pas. At the place where the rolling grain lands take on the mountains before opening out to the sea and lagoon at Stanford. This small dairy farm on the Klein Rivier now produces its own cheese. This exciting development should be a great addition to the areas fantastic wine farms and other cheese producers close by. Stanford has become a wonderful central point for great wines,food,cheese, fynbos and natural scenery. Stonehouse is a valuable addition to this already interesting area.
The farm is 250ha of natural splendour. High mountains and lovely rivers, irrigated pastures and modern dairy all add to the experience of a South African farm. Our aim is to manufacture on traditional methods fantastic boutique cheeses for the food loving market in the country.
We have over 30 years experience in the dairy bussiness so a natural step would be to grow into cheese making. Using full cream and traditional methods we are making a natural creamy cheese.
Our initial cheese will be the white mould cheeses of Brie and Camenbert. Later on we will make various hard cheeses like the Tete de Moine styled cheese.
Our History
Andrew and Anneke Fraser Jones bought the dairy farm Stonehouse Estate so as to expand their milking herd. The lovely river, pastures and backdrop of the Akkedisberg mountain and fynbos clinched the deal. Stonehouse Estate sits in the middle of Stanford, Caledon, Napier, Hermanus and Bredasdorp.
The name Stonehouse comes from the old toll house on the farm , hidden from sight higher up the mountain. Built with stone collected on the farm, one can rent the house for quiet weekends and winter kagel fires. There is no electricity, gas hot water , two bathrooms , two main bedrooms and an attic for a bunch of kids. As a dairy farmer you always have a dream to one day make your own cheese. At the end of 2015 we started to work on our dream.
Contact
Postal Address
R326
(Outside Standford)
Phone (Shop)
Matthew (Farm) – 072 9482527
Bianca (Cheese & Invoicing) – 072 8345969