Buying local milk is an easy way for people to support their local dairy farmers.
From the rolling green hills of Jamberoo on New South Wales' South Coast, locals are lapping up a boutique milk that has become available in the region's cafes and on supermarket shelves.
Chef and self-proclaimed coffee snob Cameron Thomas is seeing firsthand the difference that supporting local producers can make.
The former Sydneysider understands the value of food provenance, having owned a wedding reception venue and hobby farm for 15 years before opening a cafe in Kiama recently.
"That's the passion of being a chef, knowing where your produce is coming from, knowing what you are cooking and what quality your product is," he says.
Keeping it local
Dairy producer John Fairley from Jamberoo Valley Milk created an opportunity for Mr Thomas to champion the region's produce.
"[Mr Fairley] just popped into the cafe with a bottle of milk," Mr Thomas says.
"He proposed an initiative for local farmers, and because I want to support the local community … it all came together.
"Kiama is a tight-knit community and I felt it was important to bring on a local milk.
The milk collection process ensures that locally farmed milk stays local.
"The milk from Jamberoo [stays] in a separate tanker. We pasteurise it separately and we bottle it separately into a Jamberoo Valley label," Mr Fairley says.
"We just need to change that so that the farmers who I pick the milk up from can employ a couple of people and get a day off, let alone a holiday, so I always pay a little bit over."
While the price for using locally produced milk is a little more than supermarket stock, Mr Thomas is happy to absorb the cost.
"I thought that if we get on board and support local producers, the community will support us in the same way," he says.
And it has.
Within the first few days of the launch, a customer brought her kids in for a hot chocolate so they could taste the local milk.
"That was exactly the sort of response we were hoping for. You couldn't ask for more than that," Mr Thomas says.
A return to local
The idea to promote a local milk was not a first for the region.
A nearby micro-dairy was already supplying locally, but the business was on the cusp of winding down.
"The Pines were bottling in glass with metal caps," Mr Fairley says.
"I didn't want to smash their market, but once they stopped production, we were ready."
He had the printed labels on hand and ready to go.
For Mr Fairley, it was the ideal time to enter the market, as larger dairies across the state were closing down.
"It was just time to move forward and get things going again. Get people thinking local," he says.
He says even amidst the chaos of COVID, his farm was able to continually supply milk to the local market.
Mr Fairley would like to see a return to thinking locally.
