My week in Kumaon was peppered with adventures beyond writing. Serendipity led me to tiny Darima village where my old neighbour Deven Chauhan runs a cheerful cottage industry, making delectable, gourmet cheeses, named Darima after its location and the people who work here.

The cheesemakers are two amazing local village women, Sunita and Sarita, who know exactly how to make a gruyere or scarmoza. Their life story is what makes you believe in magic. The rest of the workers are also from Gram Darima. Mostly women, they all began life as pahadi gardeners and maids, learning the craft of cheesemaking from Pritam, who began Darima Cheese as a cottage industry, years ago. Now they walk with a swing in their step, heads high, eyes shining with pride as they talk animatedly about how their children and parents eat cheddar and gouda.

What started as a hobby found enough critical mass and traction to attract investment, marketing and all the accompanying bits of capitalism. However, the heart of Darima lies in their strength as working artisans in what is still essentially a cottage industry at heart. This is what makes them so special. I honestly did not expect to find a special batch of excellent smoked scarmoza in the mountains bordering Nepal!

Cheese making is a wet, slippery, smelly business. The ladies go about their craft smiling hugely, masked, capped and in rubber boots. Today they are celebrating Deven’s new grandson whom they agree looks like a big ball of the popular Darima Cheddar, back in Massachusetts!

I am duly honoured by visiting the cheese lockers: wheels and wheels of old and new cheeses all marked and organised in a labyrinthe. They make tonnes of cheese each month and age them as needed. Unfortunately you won’t find an old Italian parmesan aged for several years here. This is pahadi cheese made with local milk, aged and sent to big city supermarkets. While traditional artisan cheesemaking takes far longer and is a culture by itself, this is hearty cheese to eat often with your drinks or on a platter.

I am given cheese to taste and fall in love with the Zarai, a cheese rubbed with their secret recipe of local herbs and zeera, cumin. It is subtle but complex all at once and has me wanting to reach for a glass of wine immediately. The farmhouse cheddar is stellar, actually most of the cheeses are really good. I’m not complaining.

I gather the team together in the weighing and packing room. We laugh and pose for photos. Perhaps their smiles gleam under the mandatory masks as they weigh hunks of cheese, working in unison to ready them for transport. I greedily grab the cutoffs .

I am now a Darima fan for life.