Wellington micro dairy The Milk Shed is celebrating their recent win of a gold award in the Taste of the West Competition. The business is very much a family affair, all of which are heavily involved in day to day operations.

(Sarah Crossley Photography)

The Dunster family started The Milk Shed in June of 2021 and have a milk delivery round which began in May this year. The business took off quickly and they now have a thriving customer base.

Mark Dunster, his wife Nicky and kids, Emily, Henry, Isabelle and Mabel are very proud of their achievements. Being a fourth generation dairy farmer Mark is a master of his trade. One of his main focuses is the welfare of his animals. He said: “We are all about good milk, The opening of the Milk Shed was almost incidental. We do things very differently to others, we only milk the cows once a day so as not to stress them out, the calfs get to stay with their mums until they are independent. The most important thing to us is that the cows are not pushed or stressed, they only eat what grows naturally.”

This practice has led to Mark being able to deliver the freshest product possible. Another big thing for Mark and family is the natural taste of the milk. He compares his milk to something which would have been bought two generations ago.

“Our milk is non homogenised and that is huge to us, this means that after it has been pasteurised by us it goes straight to our milk bottles and milk vending machine.” Said Mark

It seems that the speed in which The Milk Shed became popular was unprecedented for Mark and his family.

“When we opened the milk shed originally we didn’t even put a sign up. My daughters put it on Facebook and within half an hour we had people turning up.The whole of last summer we never advertised once as we just didn’t have time due to being so busy with customers. Our milk sales are really strong and we only sell our milk through our own delivery round and not to supermarkets or other big companies.” Said Mark.

(Tindle News)

Mark and family have a good mixture of cows from Jersey to Friesian and cross breeds of the two.This makes the milk a very full fat end product. He said: “At the start I thought that the strength of our milk might be too much for people, but the people that are seeking us out want that proper whole milk.”

Mark compares his milk to something which would have been bought two generations ago.

The Milk Shed has been well received and he now has a strong returning customer base.

“This year my daughters have been on Tik Tok  which has led to even more customers from afar. Families that have come down this way on holiday have seen us online and come off of the motorway to find us.

“We’ve actually had grandkids encouraging their grandparents to take them here instead of McDonalds.” Said Mark.

Taste Of The West is the largest independent regional food group in the UK and has been running the competition since 1991. The next stage of the competition will see the Milk Shed judged among the other top gold winners for a chance to be in the final.