How a pandemic created local demand for real milk
While a certain pandemic meant a surge in demand for food and drink, that didn’t always mean that smaller, local growers and makers could compete with supermarkets. For our clients Maygrove, a family-run farm selling boxes of high welfare meat, this meant they had to get innovative.
The family had the bright idea to turn from meat to milk and developed a ‘nano dairy’ of three cows, Hazel, Nessa and Ruby. Tilly Lovegrove tells us about how she saw an opportunity to bring the farm’s fresh milk to locals. “Our neighbours and family who live away from the farm started taking some of our milk (as we had lots going spare). This was proving popular and through word of mouth we began getting a lot of interest in our milk. Not only because it was available with no queues, but because we only pasteurise it to make it safe to drink, so it’s as close to raw milk as it can be!”
Do you remember glass bottled milk from the milkman? Do you love a bit of cream on top to splash into your morning cup of coffee? Unhomogenised milk is very special – much more akin to how proper milk used to taste. “The reason why it’s so delicious is because we keep it as simple as possible. By pasteurising the milk we are removing potential harmful bacteria, but not homogenising we are keeping all the cream intact, keeps the essence of the milk alive so it has a much richer filling quality. All the goodness of how milk should be!”
Even better, as an Ethical Micro Dairy, the cow’s welfare is absolutely paramount. Maygrove truly believe that happy cows make for better quality milk. Unlike larger commercial dairies, they do not remove any calves from their mothers till they are old enough to be weaned.
Tilly has observed that the milk endeavour is all part of a renewed demand for locally sourced food; provenance and quality are now just as important to customers as convenience and value. It’s a call Maygrove are happy to answer.
Like what you see? Hop to their website to order and view our case study of the rebrand and website we created working closely with them.