The Feta Family and the Fabulous Festival Cheese

Each Ten Word Tale is written using ten words suggested by children. The Feta Family's Fabulous Festival Cheese is inspired by ten words chosen by Ariadne, Luna and Arthur.

Spot the 10 words - snowing, beads, cartwheel, spicy, scared, red, tiredly, helicopter, flowers, drive - and enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

In a small yard behind Tooting Market lived a large family of mice.

The Feta family lived in a blue wooden crate decorated with pictures of bright red tomatoes. They sold cheese to many mouse-customers at the back of Tooting Market every day.

Everyone in the family, young and old, was very good at ideas, and very good a working together. Someone would have an idea, like a flash of lightning, and it would trigger another idea that would whizz off in someone else’s brain, like a firework. Their friends called them ENTREPRENEURS. This very long (and slightly French) word just means they were mice who had brilliant ideas and were brave enough to try them out.

One day Zeek, one of the children, suggested they should not just sell cheese but make cheese. His dad, Bob, mentioned that the café stalls in the market often threw away their spare milk on Saturday evenings when it was about to turn sour. This would be perfect for making cheese. They all agreed to try the idea. They looked up cheese-making recipes and began the first batch that very day. Their customers loved the cheese. It was a very good idea.

Athena, the mum, suggested flavouring the cheese. The family began experimenting. The first experiment tasted of old socks and smelt so bad they had to climb out of the wooden crate and sleep on the roof. Not such a good idea. Then they tried adding a layer of apple: the sharp-tasting fruit was wonderful with the salty cheese. They made some spicy cheeses: one with with star-anise and cardamom, one very hot cheese with chili and ginger root. These flavours were a good idea. People came from all over London to try the Feta family’s tasty cheeses.

Then came a brilliant idea that took the Feta family on a summer adventure.

Chapter 2

Usually, ideas came from the whole family but this brilliant idea happened one morning while Athena and Bob were busy making cheese and the children were at school.

When Zeek, Anzac, Fenya and tiny Faiza got home, Athena and Bob were standing nervously together by their wooden-crate home, which was covered in sheets. “We’ve had an idea but we want to know what you think.”

They were so excited their ears were vibrating, their noses were twitching and their fur was aquiver.

Athena and Bob dragged the sheets off, shouting, “DaDaaaaaa!” very loudly.

There stood the crate, transformed into a van. It had been carefully nailed to a skateboard and toy car had been attached. The crate had been re-painted sunshine yellow and across the side, in giant letters, were the words Feta Family: Pop-Up Hot-Cheese Toasties. The parents looked at their children expectantly. “The idea is we go on a travelling holiday for the whole summer, selling cheese toasties as we go. We can start at once!” they cried.

The children were very surprised and a little annoyed that the idea had got so far without them but they wanted to give it a chance. This would be the first time they had ever been on holiday, a good thing, but they were leaving school early in June, a bad thing.

“We’ll miss loads of work,” said Fenya to her dad that night. Faiza was crying at the thought of leaving Tooting and her friends. Bob promised he would collect all the work they needed from their teachers and would help them study. Athena hugged Faiza and reminded her they would be coming home to Tooting at the end of the holiday.

“We’re going to lots of new places so you can make new friends,” she said.

Faiza was comforted. “OK Mum,” she said tiredly.

“OK Dad,” said Fenya too.

It was settled.

Two days later, with the cheeses chilling safely under packets of ice and freshly baked bread in the ovens, the Feta family piled into the Hot-Cheese Toastie van. They leaned out of the windows to wave to their friends and customers who had gathered to wish them well.

“Goodbye! Good Luck!”

The crate-on-the-skateboard slid out of the car park and into the traffic, heading for the motorway.

Chapter 3

Bob and Athena’s brilliant idea, when fully explained, was to visit festivals and sell cheese toasties. FESTIVALS are places where mice camp out to listen to music or poetry or stories or sell crafts or sample new foods. There are lots of different kinds of festivals, but all festivals need food.

The Feta family’s first festival was a music festival just outside Oxford. The drive was long; the children slept on the way. The festival field was already filling up when they arrived, with lots of small tents at one end, and a huge stage at the other. The mice running the festival were delighted to see the Hot-Cheese Toastie van. “Start selling as soon as you can,” they said.

Athena made some speedy sandwiches for breakfast. Bob started up the ovens and the griddles. When they were all ready, the van popped open its shutters and the Feta family began selling their toasties to hungry festival-going mice.

Athena knew they would need to make more cheese and went to look for milk. She found a friendly cow in a field who would give them some milk for free. Fenya had heard who was singing at the festival: The Mice Girls and Tiny Mix would open tonight, Atomic Mousling were on tomorrow, then her favourite, The Cheddarbabes, would finish. “Amazing!” she sighed dreamily.

The day passed in a blur. The Toastie Van was so popular that they eventually sold out. Athena and Bob went to milk the cow while the children joined the crowds. Faiza was scared and held Fenya’s hand tightly. The Mice Girls were wonderful. The mouse-crowds danced and sang along to every song. Bob and Athena joined their children, singing and dancing too.

As The Mice Girls left the stage, over the roar of the crowds came another roar and flashing lights shone in the dark sky. There was the whoosh of sound as Tiny Mix arrived by helicopter, scattering fans who yelled and screamed and cheered.

When the very last song was over, everyone drifted back to their tents to sleep. Bob and Athena started the cheese and made the dough for tomorrow’s bread; the children fell into their beds exhausted.

Chapter 4

The next day was just as exciting and just as busy. Because they were staying up late, they all needed daytime naps.

The family hoped to visit five different festivals and would definitely need to rest between them.

The Fetas chatted to friendly mice from other food vans. There was a Muffins and Crumbs van, one called POPcorn and one selling mouse-sized pies. No one else sold cheese toasties. Their van was always busy, except in the afternoons, when many mice caught up on their sleep.

Fenya’s favourite day was the last day. That afternoon she was serving in the van while the others were asleep. It was quiet with only a few customers. She took an order for three spicy-hot-cheese toasties. Looking up, she realized the customer was one of the Cheddarbabes! All three singers were standing there. “We heard about your toasties from Tiny Mix,” said the tall brown mouse with silky fur, dyed-green ears and a sequined dress, “so we came to try them.” Fenya was so shocked and shy she could not say a word but she smiled and smiled. She wrapped the sizzling toasties carefully and passed them over proudly. “Thank you!” called the Cheddarbabes.

The Cheddarbabes’ concert was wild with the beat of the music and the feeling of last-night-excitement. That night the children dreamt of drumbeats and cheering and cheese.

When they woke up, the van was moving. Today they were off for six days of holiday (and some schoolwork) before the next festival.

They found a quiet field with some friendly cows. They enjoyed the rest and doing lessons in the sunshine and eating from the hedgerows. They gathered wild strawberries, tiny scarlet beads full of juice, hidden beneath green leaves and white flowers with yellow hearts. Anzac and Fenya went swimming in a stream. Faiza chased the little white wispy umbrellas of dandelion seeds as they blew from the dandelion flowers. “It’s snowing seeds!” she called, catching one in her paw.

They were still having ideas. They designed a completely new cheese, using things they found in the field: milk from the cows, strawberries for a sweet jammy layer and the dandelion seeds on the top, for crunch.

Soon it was time to move on to the Poetry Festival in Pembrokeshire. They were all excited because it was by the sea.

Chapter 5

The Poetry festival was wonderful. Faiza won a prize for writing a haiku, a usually-unrhyming poem following special rules:

All crumbly white and
Quick to make, our light cheese melts
On hot crusty bread.

Bob was so proud he painted the poem on the van.

After the festival, the family stayed by the sea and had five sunny days on the beach and two rainy ones, reading and studying in the van.

They enjoyed the folk Music festival in Manchester, making friends with a family of flute-playing mice, and the Craft fair in Cumbria. In Yarm, in Yorkshire, Anzac found two goats and they tried making goats’ cheese. The van was now full of new and old cheeses (some cheeses like to be left for a while to grow tastier) ready for the final festival, the Chichester Cheese Festival. Fenya was extra happy: the Cheddarbabes were to be there on the last day.

Athena was worried that cheese-festival goers, mice who sold cheeses and champion cheesemakers, might not want cheese toasties as snacks but Anzac said no mouse would miss the chance of an extra cheesy mouthful and he was right. The festival was four days long and every day was busy.

The Feta family enjoyed sampling cheeses in the competition tents and chatting to cheese-enthusiasts. They admired the great yellow cartwheel-sized cheeses and the small blue ones; they tasted the bouncy curd cheeses and the smelly squishy ones, soft as butter. They all had their favourites: Bob loved a wonderful Wensleydale, studded with cranberries, and Zeek loved the scary-sounding Dragon’s Breath Cheddar from Wales.

They were in the crowd ready for the last concert when suddenly when the huge voice of the Festival Organiser, who was standing on the stage, called their name through the microphone. “Where’s the Feta Family?” They were pushed to the front by furry arms and friendly paws.

“We ask festival-goers to name their favourite cheese of the festival for our special award,” said the Festival Organiser. “It was not won by any of our champion cheesemakers but by the Feta Family. The best-loved cheese of all is your Feta Family Festival Cheese with the wild-strawberry layer and the dandelion seeds. It’s the favourite!” Cheers filled the air as the cheese-loving crowd roared and clapped. The Feta family was presented with a silver cup. Then they went back into the crowd, ready for the Cheddarbabes.

“Well done Feta Family!” shouted the Cheddarbabes, as they came onto the stage and the music began to boom out into the summer night.

It was so very, very late indeed when the concert was over, that it was early. There was already a thin line of green and gold sunlight on the horizon. The children staggered into bed and Bob and Athena got ready for the drive home.

As they started the engine the voice of a child drifted down through the van.

“Dad! Mum!” called the soft sleepy voice of Faiza.

“Yes dear.”

“This whole summer has been one of our best ideas.”