​Agriculture

Udder-ly delicious! Taste of milk from farm's new venture hailed as "like nothing on earth"

Chloe Marsh of Eweleaze Dairy in Martinstown near Dorchester.

By Staff Reporter [email protected]

Published: May 15, 2020 | Updated: 7th February 2022

A new venture from a Dorset family farm is proving a big hit despite being less than a week old.

Eweleaze Dairy, which supplies millions of litres of organic milk annually to Müller, has spent £47,000 on installing a bottle dispenser and milk vending machine at the entrance to its Martinstown farm.

Villagers from miles around have been flocking to the new facility with 160 litres of milk sold in only its third day in operation.

One customer, Polly Durrant, said: “The taste of this milk is like nothing on earth.”

Picture: Polly Durrant.

Originally scheduled to open in early April, the venture has been two years in the making.

The vending machine is designed, developed and built in the UK by the appropriately named Daisy Vending, based in Somerset.

It finally went live on May 7 after work on building the shelter and installing the equipment was delayed for five weeks by the coronavirus pandemic.

Chloe Marsh, 27, of Eweleaze Dairy, said: “We want to encourage people to Buy Locally and also show where their milk is actually coming from.

“We heat the raw milk to 63.5 degrees Celsius and then hold it at this temperature for 30 minutes.

“It doesn’t homogenise but keeps it as whole milk with all the nutrients.”

Father-in-law Noel Marsh, pictured with his wife, Amanda, left, added: “Farmers never really get any thanks or recognition.

“We tend to be hidden in the background so to get the sort of positive comments we’ve been receiving gives us a real buzz.”

Noel’s father, John, first acquired the farm in 1962, moving to milking four years later.

The original herd of 80 cows has now expanded to 650 cross-breed, of which 360 are milking.

The farm covers 1,000 acres with 566 acres owned and the rest rented from, among others, Downton Abbey creator, writer and executive producer, Lord Julian Fellowes.

Eweleaze went fully organic in 2006.

Last year a seven figure sum was spent on a complete rebuild of the dairy unit with installation of the most environmental and energy-efficient equipment and processes.

Noel, 55, who started work on the farm at the age of 16 and took over its running in his 20’s, said he believed Eweleaze was now the most modern dairy supplier to Müller.

“We produce around 8,000 litres a day and millions of litres annually.

“The average producer is about 1m litres annually,” he added.

Chloe married Noel’s son, Thomas, in 2018.

The same year she won the National Side Saddle Rider of the Year title, pictured right.

Chloe said the new vending machine had the capacity to retail 200 litres of milk every day at £1.30 a litre.

She added: “The response has been amazing with lovely comments from people about the flavour of the milk.

“We’ve had a lot of positive reaction on social media as well.

“We’re very pleased.”

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