Dorset Blue Vinny cheese enjoys Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), status so it is not any old cheese. This means this cheese can only be made at Woodbridge Farm, Sturminster Newton. It was the first food in this country to be awarded PGI status in 1998. Vinny comes from the Old English meaning to become mouldy. For several centuries, Dorset Blue Vinny was made by farmers’ wives using left over skimmed milk after cream was taken away to make butter. This resulted in a dry, crumbly, low-fat blue cheese. Reputedly Blue Vinny was Dorset author Thomas Hardy’s favourite cheese. Unconventional methods were used to blue the cheese. These included placing dirty farmers’ boots nearby, dragging mouldy horse harnesses through the milk and even incredibly using slug slime. By the 1930s, factory cheese-making had increased dramatically replacing much of the farmhouse production. With milk rationing during and after World War II, production of Dorset Blue Vinny almost completely ceased. ...