cheese

A day out in Hawes

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Hawes

I was on annual leave all of last week, and so on Wednesday I and a couple of friends went to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales for a day out. Hawes, pronounced like ‘hoares’ (and yes, there are plenty of jokes based on its name) is a small market town in the famous valley of Wensleydale.

Of the three of us, none of us can drive or has access to a car, so this was a trip done by public transport.

Hawes does have a railway station, but no trains have called there since 1959, and it’ll be quite a while before the Wensleydale Railway reaches it. The next nearest station is at Garsdale, on the wonderful Settle-Carlisle Railway, which this year celebrated 25 years since it was saved from closure by British Rail. It’s still a few miles away, is only served by six trains a day in each direction, and like many stations on the line is in the middle of nowhere.

Thankfully it’s connected to Hawes by the Little White Bus, which charges a £3.50 per person flat fare each way. It’s timed to meet some of the trains at Garsdale, although be aware that some journeys don’t normally run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays – we made this mistake and nearly got stranded in Hawes coming back. Outside of these times it operates on a request basis, so if you do need to travel you can phone them in advance.

Hawes’ main attraction is the Wensleydale Creamery, which produces Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese (now an EU Protected Origin product). After closing in 1992, it was rescued in a management buyout, and now employs almost 200 people and supports 36 local farms. The creamery includes a small museum, charting its history and how the cheese is made – on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays you can actually see cheese being made, but we went on Wednesday so we didn’t. There’s also a huge shop, selling all of the varieties of cheese produced there with ample free samples, a café and a restaurant. You can probably spend up to a couple of hours here, and then it’s just a short walk back into the town.

Hawes

The town itself is lovely, with narrow cobbled streets and plenty of small, independent shops. And, like most Yorkshire towns, several pubs serving local ales. Elijah’s is a good food emporium, and there was an excellent quirky second-hand bookshop.

Other attractions include the Ropemakers – a rope manufacturer that allows you to walk through its workshops and see how their ropes are made (and buy some yourself), and the Dales Countryside Museum, which we didn’t visit.

Earlier this year the first stage of Tour de France passed through Hawes. Having descended from Buttertubs pass, the peleton rode south into Hawes and then took a sharp right heading off east. There are still plenty of cycling and tour-themed things in the town, even though it’s been several months since the race.

All in all we had a really nice visit, even though it took me three trains and a bus each way to get there, and cost me over £20 in bus and rail fares. It was worth it though and I’d happily go again – but probably by car next time. All the photos from my visit are on Flickr.

Adventures in lactose intolerance

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LactoFree Milk and Cheese

It appears that I am lactose intolerant.

Lactose intolerance is when your body can’t produce enough lactase, which is an enzyme that breaks down lactose into simpler, more absorbable sugars. Lactose is found in cows milk, and therefore cream, butter, ice cream, yoghurt and anything else containing milk.

Lactose intolerance is not an allergy; this means most sufferers can consume small amounts of products containing lactose without problems, and even when they do consume large amounts it usually isn’t a medical emergency like with nuts. But it can lead to some unpleasant symptoms.

I’ve always had problems with consuming large quantities of milk, and when I was a toddler I could only have goats milk, as regular cows milk didn’t agree with me. As I grew older it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem, but over the past few years, the symptoms of lactose intolerance have become more noticeable. I’ve frequently been quite bloated after meals, and unsavoury things would make their way out of my rear end at regular intervals.

And then we went to Paris for our honeymoon. Whilst we were there, my symptoms were much milder, and I eventually deduced why. On a morning, rather than having cereal with milk, I was having croissants instead.

A few weeks after we returned (and after having seen my symptoms return), I switched to LactoFree milk. This is regular cows milk which has been treated to remove the lactose, but keep everything else. I also cut out yoghurts from my lunch (although only after buying a large multipack). Since then, I haven’t had any of the earlier problems.

This should be a happy ending, but unfortunately it isn’t. Because so many things have milk or dairy products in them. I am now beginning to understand how hard it is to be a vegan (even though I still eat meat). The LactoFree milk is okay – it tastes like regular cows milk and doesn’t cost much more, although it is imported from Denmark. LactoFree cheese is, however, disappointing – rubbery, and largely flavourless, reminding me of the ‘cheese’ I used to get as part of my school dinners in the early 1990s. There are other products in the range but these aren’t stocked in my local small town supermarket, sadly.

Some sufferers of lactose intolerance can manage to have yoghurt – this is because yoghurt is a fermented dairy product, and so the lactose is already partly broken down. Sadly, as mentioned before, this isn’t the case with me, and so I now have to eat soya-based equivalents. Similarly, some people can have goat or sheep milk based products, others can’t.

On the odd occasion when I drink coffee, I have to ask for soya milk. I don’t particularly like soya milk as I find it very sweet when compared to cows milk, but it’s better than feeling awful later on. Sadly Starbucks charge an extra 35p for soya milk in their drinks; I’m not sure about Costa Coffee or Caffè Nero and whether they charge extra too.

If you’re reading this and think that you too may have lactose intolerance, then by all means try cutting out diary products from your diet, but please also make an appointment to see your GP to discuss it. Don’t self-diagnose; your GP may refer you to have a blood or breath test to confirm. Mine didn’t, but this was because I’d already cut back on dairy products and we agreed that it probably wasn’t necessary. However, some of the symptoms of lactose intolerance appear to be the same as some more serious diseases such as bowel cancer, so it’s really important that you see your GP just in case. It also means that, if you are lactose intolerant, then it’s on your medical record. Some drugs contain small amounts of lactose in them, for example. And if your symptoms are serious, then your GP may need to refer you to a dietician who can devise a suitable diet for you to eat.

There isn’t a cure for lactose intolerance. As well as avoiding dairy, it is possible to take lactase substitutes, which essentially act like lactase to break down lactose in your stomach. You add them to your food before eating. They’re available from some health food shops, and on prescription in some circumstances.