skip to main content
Site banner

 

MILKING IT: Keegan Faith samples milk fresh from the farm, watched by Mel Gundesen, left, and Stacey Faith.

Photo Ian Carson

 

It’s milk fresh A2 from the farm, filtered and chilled –  not pasteurised – and it’s racing out the door at Te Horo.

Faith Farm Fresh is a new venture from the Faith family, who have been farming their pastures at Te Horo since 1914. The milk is sold from a new red shed, built near where the old Red House Cafe stood before a devastating fire in 2015.

The idea is proving so popular, they’ve run out several times since the outlet opened for business on January 21.

“The response has been phenomenal,” says Stacey Faith. “It’s not unusual to have queues out the door. We’ve added 10 more cows to the dedicated A2 herd to cope with the demand.”

Customers have commented on the unprocessed nature of the milk, and a many remember the “top milk” with the blue foil caps they used to get delivered to their door. The cream rises to the top with the Faith milk, too – great for the morning porridge or coffee.

The milk is kept chilled in two 200-litre pods, which are connected to two self-service dispensing machines made in Italy. Fresh milk goes into the pods every afternoon.

One-litre branded glass bottles are for sale for $4 each, but customers can bring their own bottles of up to 2 litres if they wish. It’s cash only ($2.50 a litre) or tokens can be bought, and the dispenser offers change.

There are also chiller bags that hold two 1L bottles each for sale, as well as replacement bottle caps.

In the meantime, staff have been on-site, but once customers get used to the machines, it will be mostly self-serve.

The A2 milk comes from a simple farming method – cows bred to produce A2 milk. The Faiths began with 18 of their nearly 400 cows producing A2 for the new venture. With the demand, they now use 28. They are milked only once a day.

Faith Farm Fresh is at the south end of the Te Horo village area, in the red shed back from the road with the life-sized fresian cow on the roof. It’s open 6am-10pm daily.

 

OTHER STORIES

 

... loading ...
 

Fresh Te Horo milk flies out the door

 
 
+ Text Size -