Veronica Barron Steele (26 November 1947 – 4 January 2017) was an Irish artisan

cheesemaker Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrate ...

from

Eyeries Eyeries (historically spelt as it is pronounced, ''Irees'' or ''Iries''; ) is a village and its hinterland, on the Beara Peninsula in County Cork, Ireland, near the border with County Kerry. It lies at the foot of a hilly area, with a beach nea ...

West Cork West Cork () is a tourist region and municipal district in County Cork, Ireland. As a municipal district, West Cork falls within the administrative area of Cork County Council, and includes the towns of Bantry, Castletownbere, Clonakilty, Du ...

. She created Milleens cheese, "Ireland's first modern farmhouse cheese".

Career

Steele earned a degree in philosophy from

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

. She pioneered the homegrown Irish artisan cheese industry in the 1970s, with the introduction of Milleens cheese, which achieved national attention when it was picked up by Declan Ryan for use in the Arbutus Lodge in Cork. She started cheese making on her

Beara Peninsula Beara () or the Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare River (which is actually a bay) to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It contains two mountain ranges running down its ce ...

farm, as a way to preserve excess milk, and to develop jobs in rural areas. She was influenced by

John Ehle John Marsden Ehle Jr. (December 13, 1925 – March 24, 2018) was an American novelist known best for his fiction set in the Appalachian Mountains of the American South. He has been described as "the father of Appalachian literature". Life and ...

. "Any fool can make cheese," she later explained. "It takes genius to ripen it. You are dealing with an innocent-looking blob of mainly protein and fat, which is the favourite food of almost every beast that roams the face of the earth." The Steeles were featured in a short documentary film, ''The Cheesemakers of Beara'', televised in 1986. Steele was a founder and chair of CAÍS, the Association of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers. In 2000 she and Seamus Sheridan gave a workshop on Irish Farmhouse Cheese at the Salon de Gusto in Turin. The Steeles' herd was lost to

bovine spongiform encephalopathy Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and always fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of th ...

in 2001. She retired for health reasons in 2003, passing ownership of the Milleens production to her son Quinlan. In 2016, she was honoured with a "Best of the Decade" ''Good Food Ireland Award''. She also received the first Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Cheese Awards.

Personal life

Veronica Barron, a Dublin native, was married to Sussex-born philosophy lecturer Norman Steele. They had four children. She suffered from

multiple system atrophy Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremors, slow movement, muscle rigidity, postural instability (collectively known as parkinsonism), autonomic dysfunction and ataxia. This is caused by progr ...

later in life, and died in 2017, at the age of 69, at Bantry General Hospital.

References

External links

The history of Milleens
milleenscheese.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Veronica 1947 births 2017 deaths Businesspeople from County Cork Cheesemakers Neurological disease deaths in the Republic of Ireland Deaths from multiple system atrophy Place of death missing 20th-century Irish businesspeople 20th-century Irish businesswomen People from Eyeries