Buying local milk is an easy way for people to support their local dairy farmers.
From the green hills of Jamberoo, on the south coast of New South Wales, locals are consuming a boutique milk that is available in the region’s cafes and supermarket shelves.
Coffee chef and self-proclaimed snob Cameron Thomas is seeing first-hand the difference it can make in supporting local producers.
The former Sydneysider understands the value of where the food comes from, as he has owned a wedding reception venue and a hobby farm for 15 years before recently opening a coffee shop in Kiama.
“That’s the passion of being a chef, knowing where your product comes from, knowing what you’re cooking and what quality your product is,” he says.
“While the margins may be smaller, for me it’s about quality products so that customers are more likely to come back.”
Jamberoo Valley milk is now available on supermarket shelves and is stored in many cafes on the south coast. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
Keep it local
Dairy producer John Fairley of Jamberoo Valley Milk created an opportunity for Mr. Thomas defends the products of the region.
“[Mr Fairley] I just walked into the cafeteria with a bottle of milk, ”Thomas says.
“He proposed an initiative for local farmers, and because I want to support the local community … everything came together.
Despite the wide range of alternatives to milk, there are still many in Kiama who prefer whole cow’s milk to coffee. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
“Kiama is a very close – knit community and I felt it was important to bring local milk.
“Milk is a generic product, but … if you can find it along the way, it makes sense to use it.”
The milk collection process ensures that locally grown milk remains local.
“Jamberoo milk [stays] in a separate tanker truck. We pasteurize it separately and bottle it separately on a Jamberoo Valley label, ”says Fairley.
“We just need to change that so that the farmers we collect the milk can employ a couple of people and have a day off, let alone a vacation, so always pay a little more.”
Although the price to use locally produced milk is a bit higher than the existence of supermarkets, Thomas is happy to absorb the cost.
“I thought that if we join and support local producers, the community will support us in the same way,” he says.
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And he has.
During the early days of the launch, a customer took her children for a hot chocolate so they could taste the local milk.
“That was exactly the kind of response we were expecting. You couldn’t ask for more than that,” Thomas says.
A return to the premises
The idea of promoting local milk was not new to the region.
A nearby microbrewery was already supplying locally, but the business was about to end.
“The Pines were bottled in glass with metal caps,” Mr. Fairley says.
“I didn’t want to crush their market, but once they stopped production, we were ready.”
I had the labels printed by hand and ready to work.
Dairy farmer and producer John Fairley took the risk that milk is moving from the Jamberoo Valley. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
For Mr. Fairley, it was the perfect time to enter the market, as large dairies across the state were closing.
“It was just the time to move on and get things done again. To make people think locally,” he says.
He says that even in the midst of the chaos of COVID, his farm was able to continuously supply milk to the local market.
Country Valley in Picton, south of Sydney, now produces milk from dairy farms in Jamberoo Valley. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
Mr. Fairley would like to see a return to local thought.
“The model has to go back to when you had the old Jamberoo milk factory and everything was local. We did local work, and the money stayed local,” he says.
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Posted 7 hours 7 hours agoWednesday, June 29, 2022 at 6:13 AM, updated 5 hours ago 5 hours agoWednesday, June 29, 2022 at 8:30 AM