Janet and Miles King made stunning cheeses at their idyllic Wairarapa farm (closed since May 2025).
This heart-warming photo shows the values they brought to looking after their flock and to their cheesemaking. They were in the vanguard of reinventing cheesemaking in Aotearoa, having the courage to abandon their plans for a berry farm and instead leap into the unknown world of sheep milk cheese in 1998. They never stopped innovating, constantly experimenting with new cheeses whilst building the fanbase for their classics.
Their cheeses ranged from oozing bries and perfectly-balanced blues to super-moreish hard cheeses, and of course seasonal fresh cheeses. They also sourced some milk locally for a range of cow milk cheeses. Their cheeses won too many awards to count. They also won many awards recognising their approach, including Supreme Winner of the 2014 MiNDfood Awards (recognising the finest food producers in the Wellington region), a range of environmental, and farming and sustainability awards.
Their innovation knew no bounds. They were also responsible for developing NZ’s first registered sheep dairy breed, Dairymeade, which they bred by crossing East Friesian genes introduced to NZ in 1994 with local Coopworth and Border Leicester ewes. A visit to their farm confirmed that these are contented sheep. They enjoyed a mix of clover, chicory, plantain and lucerne in a bucolic setting. They also obviously enjoyed Miles’ company, always keen on a scratch under the chin, and they came for milking as soon as they heard Miles’s voice.
Miles and Janet deserve a lot of credit for sparking a new industry. Ewe’s milk helped the lactose intolerant enjoy cheese, and the rest of us can simply enjoy yet more variations. Like all artisan food, Kingsmeade’s cheeses varied with the seasons and subtly by the batch. By 2020 they were producing 23,000 kilograms of great cheese!
Miles and Janet from Kingsmeade are dear friends of The Cheese Wheel.
