David and Jo Clarke are dairy farmers at Sparkenhoe Farm near Upton in south-west Leicestershire. A year ago they decided that they needed a new way to add value to the milk they produced, and the result was to become Leicestershire's only Red Leicester cheese makers. BBC Radio Leicester's Helen Astle went to visit David and Jo and find out about Red Leicester's first year back in the county…There are eight varieties of the cheese produced in the UK, but Sparkenhoe Farm makes the only traditional Red Leicester.  | | A storeroom full of Red Leicester cheese |
Jo says that they've had a warm welcome from local shops and restaurants, and strong support from local people. They've also secured a contract with the supermarket chain, Waitrose, and consequently, they are producing a lot more cheese than they expected to. Recently, Jo and David took their Red Leicester to the East Midlands Food and Drink Festival in Melton Mowbray.  | | Jo Clarke cutting some Red Leicester |
They won the prize for Best Newcomer, and David says that he was very pleased with the reception the cheese received: "It was lovely to get some of the people who could remember what Red Leicester tasted like before it went out of production in Leicestershire. It was heartening that a lot of them thought that our cheese tasted very similar to how it used to taste." | 
