The Real Milk Company - A New Way to Get Milk

Since my son has started his Stagecoach classes in Southwell, we have been driving through the beautiful Nottingham countryside on a regular basis. For the first time a few weeks ago, I saw a sign at the side of the road for The Real Milk Company.

A little investigation when I got home lead to finding out about a wonderful new venture just a few miles from my doorstep that would change my milk buying forever.

In a small wooden shed at the end of the farm drive is a milk vending machine, with steam coming out of it like some magical tardis, it delivers to you fresh whole milk that tastes exactly like milk should. I know lots of people drink semi-skimmed or skimmed so this may not be for them but we only drink whole milk, it's great for cereal and for hot chocolate and the odd latte I have these days.

Anyway, back to the vending machine. First of all you choose how much milk you want, you can get 1 litre or 2 litre plastic bottles, they even do a 1 litre glass bottle, which you can wash at home and bring back next time.

You then pop your money into the machine, your bottle in the machine under the spout and press the button, the milk then comes out and fills the bottle with the requisite amount.

Once you have finished you close the little door and a puff of steam comes out to clean the machine, ready for the next customer, and indeed there were plenty of customers, in fact two people visited whilst we were there, walking to get there milk. It sent me back to the day of the milk man, when milk was delivered to your door and was fresh.

If you are local to Nottingham then I suggest you seek out this wonderful little farm, you get to go and visit a beautiful slice of countryside support a local farmer and business.

How about a visit to Rufford Abbey and a little stop off on the way back, or in June this year as part of Open Farm Sunday The Real Milk Company will be opening their doors to show you the farm and what they have to offer. We will be heading up there to see the cows on the farm and to buy some milk of course, as well as heading to some of the other local farms as part of this wonderful day out. We've been for the past few years  it is such a great day out and a glimpse§ into an important part of our farming heritage and lives in this country.

Milk from the farm is £1 for a litre and £2 for 2 litres.

Southwell Ploughing Match 2015

A few weeks ago, we headed over to the Southwell Ploughing Match, it has grown since we last went and we spent at least 6 hours wandering round the many stalls tents and exhibits. It was a great day out, that also allowed us to show the children what farming was like many years ago and now.  As well as how important farming is to Britain and how we need to support local producers with a fair price for the extremely hard work that goes into farming.

The ploughing itself took place early on in the morning, so first of all, we went to the fields to watch this. With lots of different machinery, from horse drawn ploughs, through to the first motorised models and to the modern machines of today, it was a wonderful look into how far we'd come.

Afterwards, we grabbed some food from one of the many wonderful food stalls in the farmers market area, for lunch, we chose our favourite farm shop which is Maxeys and grabbed a few of their wonderful burgers. As well as a few beers from a local brewery's stall, later on in the day we bought some cakes from All Mine Cakes and some raw milk from Milky Business, both fabulous local businesses. 

After finishing our burgers and beers, we headed to watch the digger dancing, a great opportunity for the children to sit down as well as to watch an absolutely wonderful spectacle. Six diggers all doing acrobatics, it was brilliant and a great thing to be able to watch.

Next up, we went and looked at some of the many other stalls around the site, my son had a go at archery. It was great to be able to try something new out, especially something like archery when we are in Robin Hood County.

We next went to the craft and produce tent, there were amazing flowers, vegetables, drawings and displays of all sorts. The scarecrows were particularly cute, as were the animals made from vegetables, the winner being a rather creative and oober cute elephant made out of cabbage, red onions and beetroot.

And where would a farming related show be without some some wonderful animals. To be able to get up close and personal with some of the finest specimens of cows and sheep was a great experience for the children, you don't realise how big cows are either until you're up that close.

We had an absolutely amazing day and the children both got something from the craft tent to take home. As well as seeing how faming works, we got to meet many wonderful makers, from milk to cakes and toys to farming.

We will definitely be back next year and if you are local and I can highly recommend it.

Open Farm Sunday

For the last two years we have been visiting Open Farm Sunday, this time of year farms across the country open their doors to members of the public, to get a taste of what the do, try and encourage people to buy local and so you can see what goes in to farming.

Manor Organic Farm in Long Whatton just outside of Loughborough is as the name suggests, an organic farm, this means that they can't use any chemicals on the land and it is all natural. As we walked through the fields Graham the farmer explained to us about how, instead of using weed killer to control unwanted plants, they have introduced a beetle that eats, dock leaves. They are a big problem within the cow fields and the cows don't eat them. We also got to see a sheep dog herding the sheep into a pen, very fascinating how it works and the different commands.

We got to learn about bees and how they make the hives, breed and make the honey. It was a really interesting talk and we all learnt a lot. We knew bee's were special anyway but the whole cycle of a bee is amazing, getting to see inside a beehive was also pretty special.

There was sheep shearing too, it was amazing to see the fleece come off in one go and then to touch the fleece, you could feel the lanolin in it which makes the water run off when they are out in the rain (I had always wondered why we'd never seen a soggy sheep). It was really fascinating, sad though that the farmers don't get much for the fleeces, about the same as it costs them to shear them. Surely for the cost of proper wool items you'd expect they'd get more!

The children both had a great time, learning about the different areas of farming, getting to know the animals and playing on the old tyres that made up the playground.

It was a really great day, we got to try some of the farms fabulous produce from the BBQ stand and the children both had a go at bread making, lots of fun and they got to eat their creation once it had been cooked.

If you didn't get chance to go on a Open Farm Sunday trip this year then do look out for it next year, it's a really great idea to help members of the public have an understanding of the time and effort that goes into farming.

We prefer to buy our meat from local farm shops, simply because the meat is so much better but we are also supporting a small business and our very important farmers.

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