Edith is an ash-dusted goat's cheese from Woodside Cheese Wrights in the Adelaide Hills, made using a French geotrichum-mould technique rather than the more common bloomy-rind method. It has been one of the dairy's signature cheeses since it first won Australia's top goat-cheese award in 2002.
Woodside's own line on the name is short: Edith is "named after the French woman who taught us the art of making this extraordinary cheese." The company has never published her surname, her town, or how the two met, so treat any more specific version of that story, including a claimed link to Burgundy, as oral color rather than a documented fact.
In This Article
The French Woman Behind Edith's Name
Woodside Cheese Wrights didn't invent the recipe for Edith. Head cheesemaker Kris Lloyd credits a French cheesemaker, referred to only as Edith, for teaching her the geotrichum technique, and named the Australian cheese after her as a direct thank-you.
Woodside's own materials describe Edith as "notoriously difficult to create.. worth every minute of effort," a reputation the company ties to the mould itself rather than the recipe's ingredient list. Edith even disappeared from the lineup for several years before Woodside worked out how to make it consistently and brought it back, describing the cheese as "back after a few years of perfecting her."
How Kris Lloyd Built Woodside Cheese Wrights
Woodside Cheese Wrights started in 1994 as a small cheese factory in the Adelaide Hills. Kris Lloyd was working in marketing for her family's Coriole Vineyards at the time, searching for local cheeses that paired with the wines on the principle that "what grows together, goes together."
She bought the struggling factory in 1999 with no cheesemaking training of her own. By one account, staff absences forced her onto the make-floor herself early on, and that hands-on emergency is what actually pulled her into the craft rather than a planned career change.
Lloyd has spoken about her Greek grandmother Chrisanthy, who she is named after, as her real cooking influence: "She taught me a respect for food, particularly food that is in season, and how to ensure nothing would be wasted." Her self-taught path eventually earned formal recognition, including induction into France's Guilde Internationale des Fromagers in 2012 and appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2020.
Her son, Mitchell Lloyd, has served as senior cheesemaker since 2015.
The Geotrichum Mould That Makes Edith Difficult
Most bloomy-rind cheeses, like Camembert, rely on Penicillium candidum, a mould that grows into a smooth, even white coat. Edith instead uses Geotrichum candidum, a yeast-like organism that grows into a wrinkled, branching network across the surface rather than a flat layer.
That mould needs a narrow window to behave well: roughly 10 to 15 degrees Celsius and 85 to 95 percent humidity. Too little control in either direction risks an ammonia smell or an uneven, overgrown rind, which is the technical root of the cheese's difficult reputation.
Edith isn't the only Woodside cheese the mould has beaten. Two other geotrichum-rind goat cheeses in the dairy's history, Duet and Virgo, were both discontinued specifically because the mould grew inconsistently batch to batch, and a separate ash-coated cheese, Vesuvius, was pulled from the range for being too time-consuming and tricky to make reliably.
A rind that has grown the way it should looks like fine coral under the ash, with folds and ridges you can see from across a counter rather than a flat dusting. Slick or patchy areas are the mould failing to take evenly across the surface.
Edith is the one geotrichum cheese in that family Woodside eventually got consistent enough to keep making.
What Edith Tastes Like
A young Edith, still close to its 3-to-4-week minimum age, shows a chalky, firm texture just beneath the ash-dusted rind, with nutty, savory flavors that read fresh rather than pungent. That's a very different cheese from the same wheel a week or two later.
As Edith matures, the center turns velvety and runny, and the flavor shifts toward tangy, sweet, earthy, and slightly gamey notes that Woodside describes as the cheese's fullest expression. Buying it at different points in that window is effectively choosing between two different eating experiences from the same recipe.
You can see which stage you have before you taste it. A young round shows a firm white core with a softer, creamier band running between it and the rind, and that band widens week by week until the core is gone.
The ash is a surface finish, so most of what registers at the edge comes from the mould layer under it. That rind carries more of the earthy, savory end of the cheese than the paste does, which is why a bite taken across the wedge tastes different from a bite out of the middle.
How to Serve Edith
Edith works best on a cheeseboard with crusty bread, where its ash-dusted rind and soft, spreadable center get room to stand out. Fresh berries or a fig spread add a sweetness that plays well against the cheese's earthy, tangy character.
It is a table cheese rather than a cooking cheese. Serving it at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes brings out the runnier, more complex character the aging process builds in.
Unwrap it when you set it down rather than leaving it sealed on the bench. A rind warming inside its paper sweats, and the surface turns slick within the hour.
Cut a round like a cake, in wedges from the center out, so each person gets both the firm core and the softer edge. Give it a knife of its own too, since the ash marks everything it touches.
Warm dishes are the limit rather than cooked ones. Spooned over hot roasted vegetables or onto toast straight off the grill, the paste slackens without ever going near a pan.
What to Drink With Edith
Woodside's own current pairing advice favors a light red like Sangiovese or a light white like Pinot Grigio. Earlier retail copy has also recommended Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, and dry rosé, all of which lean on acidity to match the cheese's tang without fighting its earthier notes, so either style of wine is a reasonable match.
Big tannic reds and heavily oaked whites are the two to leave in the rack. Tannin turns hard and metallic against a fresh goat's cheese, and oak sits on top of the delicate end of the flavor instead of beside it.
A dry cider covers the same ground when wine is not on the table. It brings the acidity the pairing needs and a trace of apple sweetness at the same time.
Edith's Award History
Edith won the Grand Dairy Award for best goat cheese in Australia in 2002, the result that first put Woodside Cheese Wrights on the national map. Sources disagree on exactly when the dairy won a second Grand Dairy Award, either 2004 or 2011 depending on the account, plus four South Australian Premier's Food Awards.
Woodside's later native-ingredient cheese, Anthill, a fresh goat chevre rolled in native green ants, took that reputation further: a Super Gold medal at the 2016 World Cheese Awards out of more than 3,000 entries, and Best Australian Cheese at the 2022 World Cheese Awards. Edith remains the cheese that established the dairy's technical credibility in the first place.
Edith vs Humboldt Fog
Both are ash-marked goat's cheeses built around a distinctive mould, which makes Humboldt Fog the most natural comparison for shoppers who know one but not the other.
| Edith | Humboldt Fog | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Woodside, South Australia | Northern California, United States |
| Rind mould | Geotrichum candidum, wrinkled | Ash line inside the paste, plus a bloomy Penicillium rind |
| Aging | 3 to 4 weeks | About 3 to 4 weeks |
| Flavor | Nutty when young; tangy, earthy, gamey with age | Tangy and lemony, milder overall |
| Availability | Mainly within Australia | Widely available at US specialty shops |
Choose Edith for its wrinkled geotrichum rind and its more assertive, earthier flavor as it ages. Choose Humboldt Fog when a milder, more widely stocked ash-line goat cheese fits the occasion better.
Age changes the two at different speeds on a board. A mature Edith runs from the rind inward and pushes toward gamey, so it takes over a plate that Humboldt Fog would sit quietly on.
What to Use Instead When Edith Isn't Available
Crottin de Chavignol is the closest substitute in both technique and category, since it's also a French geotrichum-rind goat cheese that firms up and intensifies with age. Humboldt Fog works as a milder stand-in when the goal is an ash-marked goat cheese rather than an exact flavor match.
What no stand-in gives you is the rind itself. A Penicillium rind grows on smooth and flat, so a board built to show off wrinkled texture loses its point whatever else goes on it.
If the ash is the part you wanted, a plain ash-coated fresh chevre gets the look for a fraction of the price. It will taste like fresh curd rather than a ripened round, so serve it as its own thing rather than as a replacement.
Buying Edith
Edith is mainly a domestic Australian product, sold through specialty cheesemongers rather than mainstream supermarkets. Shoppers outside Australia are unlikely to find it imported, given its short 3-to-4-week aging window and delicate rind.
The standard round weighs 150 grams, and retail prices vary noticeably by shop, from around 12 Australian dollars buying direct from Woodside up to roughly 25 dollars at some Sydney specialty counters, so it's worth checking more than one source rather than assuming a single price.
Press the top gently before you commit. A young round gives a little at the edge and stays firm under the middle, while a ripe one yields most of the way across.
Ask what date it came in as well. On a three to four week cheese, a round that has already sat two weeks in a case is a different purchase from one that arrived on Tuesday.
Nutrition and Safety
Edith is made with pasteurized goat's milk, which makes it a safer choice than raw-milk soft cheeses for pregnant women and others avoiding unpasteurized dairy. Goat's milk cheeses in general also tend to be easier to digest than cow's milk cheeses for people with mild dairy sensitivities.
That easier digestion is about the fat and protein structure rather than lactose, so a goat's cheese is not a workaround for a diagnosed lactose intolerance.
The ash-dusted rind is edible along with the paste. Cheesemakers use a food-grade vegetable ash for this, not anything swept out of a fire.
Storing Edith
A whole Edith round keeps for about a week past its purchase date if properly refrigerated, since it is already close to its peak ripeness window when sold. Once cut, eat it within a few days for the best texture.
Wrap it loosely. A rind pressed flat under tight paper stops breathing and turns slimy in a couple of days, so fold the sheet over with a little air left in it.
Take a wedge out of the round rather than slicing the top off. Cut flat, the paste loses the rind that was holding it and spreads across the shelf.
An ammonia note that lifts after a few minutes in open air is the rind venting. One still there after ten minutes means the paste has gone past eating, and no amount of airing brings it back.
