Berkeley Farm Dairy uses a herd of Guernsey cows with an occasional top up from their neighbour’s Friesian herd. They run the milking and bottling themselves, and when we order our milk, much of it may not yet be milked!
Much mass produced milk is homogenised, meaning the cream is taken out of the milk, broken down into little globules of fat and put back in so it's all a uniform consistency, though it becomes harder to digest. Nick just leaves in the natural cream, so you'll see it rising to the top of the milk in your bottles. Of course he does drain it off the top of his skimmed milk and drains it off half the semi-skimmed. He makes some of the pure cream into hand-made butter, or you can buy it straight up as bottles of luxury pouring cream.
All our milk is pasteurised.
Our golden milk is produced by Guernsey and Friesian cows in a valley in Wiltshire where they graze wildflower meadows full of the greenest grass. Nick and Christine have spent time learning all about cow psychology, and treating cow illnesses homeopathically; Christine milks their cows at 4.30am and 3.30pm. It takes Christine about 2 hours to get through the whole herd and she always gives them a quick health check - any signs of something wrong and she’ll treat the symptoms with some herbal infusions. This is a skilful task as she uses many different infusions to treat different symptoms. Christine knows that each cow is different too, and sometimes she might have to choose one remedy for Elizabeth but a different one to treat the same symptoms in Bentley Mountbatten Marmalade. Berkeley Farm Dairy uses plastic bottles, which are much easier to recycle than tetra-paks.
Milk
Dietary information: Contains Milk Suitable for Vegetarians
Nutritional Information per 100g/ml
Energy (kJ): 146
Energy (kcal): 34
Protein (g): 3.4
Carbohydrate (g): 5
Fat (g): 0.1
Pour it over your cereal, stir it into your coffee or why not go all out and make your own rice pudding? Our milk should always be refrigerated and, once opened, should be used within three days. It is suitable for home freezing.