Video: A little insight into Low Sizergh Barn in Kendal. Farm Shop, trail, tea room and craft.
There are many farm shops in the Lakes District but this one has special charm with its tea room overlooking the milking parlour below where they milk every afternoon at around 3:30pm. The 341 acre farm has a herd of 170 cross-bred Holstein, Swedish Red and Montbeliard cows. Low Sizergh Barn farm not only produce raw milk, but they have a fabulous farm shop, tea room, craft & gift galleries and a farm trail for walking. This farm has been a destination for food lovers since it opened in 1991 because of its wide variety of artisan foods from the local producers in the area.
VIdeo: The cows leap to get to green pastures after being inside the barn all winter.
Low Sizergh Barn was also one of the first farms in England to install a raw milk vending machine, having seen them widely distributed over most of Europe. Three generations of the Park family are involved in some way but the farm is now run by brother and sister Richard and Alison. Richard produces the unprocessed, raw milk that has been for sale from the farms vending machine since March. Raw milk sales now average 60 to 70 litres a day and have exceeded their initial targets. In this interview with the local press Richard said: “It’s quickly proved to be a popular and a good investment. We get £1.30p per litre compared to £0.23p for the milk which we sell to a co-operative. Plus there’s another benefit. I get first hand feed-back from customers at the farm – something which doesn’t happen with commercial collections.”
On the 4th of August, Low Sizergh Barn received the 2016 National Trust's Fine Farm Produce award for their raw milk, which Richard Park received at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. He also gave a talk about raw milk, while the Bake Off finalist Holly Bell was using it in her demonstration. One of the judges said: "the milk smelt like double cream. A truly excellent product."
Also see a video by the National Farmers Union (NFU) in which Richard explains how proud farmers in the area are to produce top quality food for the nation. Click here to see the video or read the article about the #proudtoproduce campaign.
Video: Peter Marshall from BBC North West introduces a news piece on the award-winning raw milk from Low Sizergh Barn in the Lake District. Farmer Richard Park is adding value to the herd's milk by selling it directly to customers via a vending machine. The raw milk has recently won a National Trust Fine Farm Produce Award.
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