Dairy
Cornish Yarg
Cornish Yarg is a semi-hard cow’s-milk cheese from Cornwall whose wheels are wrapped in nettle leaves during ripening. The paste is creamy and slightly crumbly, with a mild, buttery, mushroomy flavour; the nettles form a mottled green-grey edible rind that imparts earthy and herbal notes as the cheese matures. It is served as a table cheese on boards and platters, often as a distinctive regional British specialty. A garlic-wild variant and related leaf-wrapped styles exist, but classic Yarg is defined by nettle wrapping and Cornish milk.
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History
Allan and Jenny Gray developed nettle-wrapped cheese in Cornwall, naming it Yarg from the reversed family name.
Early commercial production established Cornish Yarg as a modern regional specialty cheese.
Wider UK specialty distribution made leaf-wrapped Yarg a familiar British cheese-board item.
Production at larger Cornish dairies scaled output while keeping nettle wrapping and semi-hard paste.
Cornish Yarg and related wild-garlic variants expanded export and restaurant presence.