It is with sadness, though with great relief that this Plantbased Creamery is shutting its doors.

Being in the food industry for half a decade, I am hoping I made a positive impact on how we see vegan cheese in the UK. Coming from dairy roots at first, it was a challenge, but people saw what could be achieved when using the 1000s years of knowledge, techniques, and cheese wizardry we have as a collective.

I will admit, I had to check in with my fellow food businesses, as well as several big and small vegan cheese businesses if I did a good job, if my knowledge was sound, etc. They all said yes and what I achieved is something to be proud of. Especially true when nothing has come close to the authentic style I was trying to achieve in my own product range.

UK’s first, UK’s only, and still not reproducible by others (sadly), being able to develop a long-aged hard vegan cheese with a natural rind was utterly groundbreaking. It was a fun, educational and an amazing experience to build the perfect maturing environment to make such creations.

This along with the popular authentic smoked range, and the developing in house made cultures to bring British style aged cheese and butter in the form of Rockhill Cheese, and Vintage butter … it has been an adventure.

So let us stop beating around the bush. What happened?

The business failed. While the last few years of never-ending changes in the financial climate had something to say, especially where I saw nearly all my stockist closing down, the ultimate reason is the business failed because of my health problems.

These health problems have been skimmed over in the public spotlight so the real story has never been shared. And while it is too complex to share it all, I think it is only right to shed only a bit more on this.

It’s taken a lifetime to figure out, but it turns there is several layers of trauma within my psyche that have come from my younger years. While this is still vague as this isn’t the right space to talk about it, the trauma has led me down a path of multiple personality disorders, BPD, eating disorders, depression, anxiety and suicide.

The last 9 months have been the hardest where it almost took me “out” but I’ve always been a “fighter” at heart so, I kept going.

However, it left quite the emotional scar that broke me in certain ways that may never recover, especially when I continue to place pressure upon myself to do better and be better.

There’s a need to resolve my problems before it’s too late but that in itself takes an enormous amount of time & energy that makes it impossible to run a business. It’s one or the other. Both cannot exist within a broken world in a broken person.

So there was nothing wrong with the products. It was a sales and marketing problem. The business failed because it did not have me driving it anymore as my life meant more. There’s more to this story and the aftermath that has been followed since being closed and financially broke. But this is where we are at.

I know so many will be upset to not be able to have this style of vegan cheese again. It does pain me as a core foundation of being in the food industry was to feed people I liked with good food. It was my way of being wanted, which in itself was one of my many downfalls. 

It is unlikely that this business will ever return. I was looking into creating cheesemaking videos however that is quite a mammoth and complex task that my mind isn’t ready to take on board. Maybe one day.

So yea. Food by Sumear is gone. The future isn’t written so who knows. 

Thank you to all the long-term supporters. There are so many of you that have spent well over £1000 each on my creations over the years. It means you enjoyed what I did and that honestly means the world to me.

Thank you thank you thank you. Love you all.

P.S. Anyone that is like me with your mental health. Please know that yes, you are good enough. You are wanted. Focus on yourself. Let some things go. Let people in. Accept the compliments and know you deserve good things too. Also, seek help if you need it. Nothing will change unless you take action. You always deserve happiness. 

I am the hard vegan cheese & long-aged cheese specialist.

My job is to create authentic vegan cheese using the experience and techniques as an ex-dairy cheesemaker. By creating the cultures from scratch and understanding the science of cheesemaking, I am able to develop well rounded flavoured cheeses while achieving the right texture.

With flavours & textures similar to dairy, there are no artificial flavours or artificial preservatives. Everything is free-from soy, miso and even free from nutritional yeast. The cultures and good old fashion dairy cheesemaking practices help develop a true natural cheese flavour without any tricks.