On a rainy Monday in January a few of us from Brasserie Bread drove to Picton to spend a day with John Fairley at Country Valley. We are now using Country Valley milk for our Allpress coffees at our café in Botany, so it was an eye-opening experience to see the care and passion that goes into the Country Valley farm, and seeing the parallels to Brasserie Bread’s philosophies.

The farm is located in a valley about five minutes away from the township of Picton. The herd is carefully reared and nurtured, some call it pampered, to produce an incredible product that’s wholesome, full of flavour, and incredibly fresh. There are 145 head of cattle, which are a Friesian/Jersey cross. They graze happily on roughly 300 acres of lush pasture. For John farming is more than a job – it’s a way of life.

The Fairley Family

The Fairley family has been living in this valley for over 150 years, farming everything from peas to cattle. The dairy opened in 1958, first operated by John’s father, uncle and grandfather – later on by John and his brother. In 2001 John took over the dairy, but his brother operates a cattle raising business on the remaining land. By 2004 a milk processing plant was built, situated only 100 metres from the dairy. The milk comes straight from the cows to the plant, where it’s bottled right then and there.

The Milk

After a tour of the pastures, petting calves, and seeing the milking in action, we sit down to try the milk. A blind tasting proves that we can note the difference in flavour between full cream milk, organic milk, and unhomogenised milk. Many of us found the unhomogenised milk the most flavoursome. The reason milk is homogenised is to avoid separation; the process of homogenisation breaks down fat molecules to prevent separated layers of cream on top.

All of Country Valley’s milk is 100% milk with no added permeate. Numerous big supermarket brands add 12% permeate to their milk – and it’s not even on the label. Permeate is a by-product from the production of skim milk, a thin watery substance that acts as a cheap filler.

It’s no surprise that Country Valley’s incredible milk has been winning Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards every year for the last decade. Taste the difference of Country Valley milk on your next visit at the Brasserie Bread cafe.