If you’re at all interested in food, you’d have to have buried your head in a bucket of sand to have missed the news that there’s a high profile campaign going on to save the UK’s artisan cheese makers.

Their sales fell off a cliff with the enforced closure of the restaurant industry and big names like Jamie Oliver, the BBC Food Programme’s Sheila Dillon and food writer Jenny Linford have been pleading with us to buy their cheeses, either direct from the producers or through cheesemongers like Neal’s Yard Dairy or, here in Suffolk, Slate.

Don’t judge me, my husband loves Cheddar

Why would you buy premium cheeses rather than a supermarket slab and then (unless you go above a fairly hefty price point) pay to have them delivered? Well, because they are of exceptionally high quality; because they’re mostly made by small, family-run businesses who’ve developed their products through years of love and hard slog; and because if we don’t help they could go bust, they’ll lose their livelihoods and we’ll lose some of the nation’s best cheeses.

You’re not putting money in the pockets of big, faceless conglomerates. You’re helping people like Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore from Fen Farm Dairy to feed and clothe their children and in turn the families of all the people who work for them. And you’re getting back something that tastes incredible.

Image: Katherine Mager

While not everyone can afford to do this, the response so far has been fantastic. Jonny announced this week that they’ve been able to take their staff off furlough and resume making their award-winning raw milk Brie-style cheese, Baron Bigod.

Others are still struggling. Please help if you’re able to and while you’re at it, make a song and dance about it. A lot of the cheese makers have found the moral support to be as valuable as the financial help. We all like to know that people care and penury is a lonely place.

I got a bit carried away with my online shopping and we’ll be eating cheese at every meal. Or maybe for every course. Mmmm, a whole supper based around cheese … perhaps a baked Baron to start, with savoury granola and a drizzle of honey (here’s how), or roasted asparagus served with thin shavings of Berkswell.

I doubt if we’d be able to manage a pudding (but let me think about that, I’d love to make room for a Basque cheesecake).

The main course would be this rustic tart because Stichelton, another raw milk cheese, is my favourite British blue. Use the recipe as a template for the flavours you enjoy. For instance, you can swap the hazelnuts in the pastry for walnuts. If not already ground, pulse them to a powder in a food processor with the flour to stop them oiling.

I like the galette best warm but it’s also good, as in the picture below and weather permitting, served cold for a picnic in the garden.