Milk, on tap at Honesty Dummer Down

Milk is the kind of ingredient that barely registers in daily life, it goes into the tea, onto the cereal, into the children's glasses without a second thought. And I think that's precisely why it's worth paying attention to. The most ordinary things in our kitchens are often the ones we've stopped asking questions about.

The questions we found ourselves asking were simple enough. Where does it come from? What's actually in it? And what does the packaging it arrives in cost the planet, week after week, household after household?

Those questions led us to Michelmersh Manor Farm, a family dairy and mixed farm about 35 minutes from Dummer Down. The milk they produce is pasteurised, completely additive free, and BOVAER free. BOVAER is a feed supplement now widely used in commercial dairy farming to reduce methane emissions in cows. The intention behind it is understandable, but it's a recent addition to the food chain and one we'd rather not pass on to our customers while the long-term picture is still forming. So we haven't.

The milk comes here and goes straight into reusable one-litre glass bottles through the tap in the shop. No plastic carton, no processing to extend shelf life, no unnecessary distance between the farm and your kitchen. We introduced the refill system because single-use packaging has become so embedded in everyday shopping that most of us have simply stopped noticing it.

We wanted to offer something that worked just as easily, with a good deal less waste. 

To get started, you can purchase a 1 litre glass bottle from our team in the coffee shop, and then you can reuse that every week or two for refills.

I feel like we've found something genuinely good, and I'm glad we went looking.

If you'd like a hand using the tap, please do ask one of the team at Honesty Dummer Down.