Situated in the village of North Petherwin between Launceston and Bude is where you’ll find the home of Cornish Moo. Happy and healthy cows produce this top quality milk, which was rightly awarded Reserve Supreme Champion Product Winner as part of last year’s Taste of the West Awards. The milk is of the highest quality, pasteurised but not homogenised or standardised, and is available in glass bottles from a self-service vending machine situated on the farm.
“I’m the fourth generation of my family to farm here. I’m passionate about producing proper milk that tastes delicious,” says dairy farmer Gemma Smale-Rowland. Small wonder the Taste of the West judges also declared themselves fans: “Rich, creamy and almost thick. Fantastic-tasting, good old-fashioned milk of your childhood – it brings back wonderful memories, we should all be drinking it!” was the panel’s verdict.
The secret is in the way Cornish Moo milk is produced, as Gemma, 34, explains. “Our cows are out on grass for the majority of the year, feeling happy and relaxed. Then, when it comes to the milk itself, I simply pasteurise it gently and slowly, then it’s ready to drink. The cream rises to the top of the bottle, just like it always used to do. We sell it at the farm gate and at local stores.”
“I truly believe that people want food that is simple, local and hasn’t been messed about with,” she says. “These days, commercial milk is usually stripped of all its protein and cream to sell separately, pasteurised as fast as possible at high temperatures and homogenised. By the time it’s gone through all that, it’s a shadow of its former self.”
“My aim with Cornish Moo is for people to be able to buy milk that tastes the way it should do, the way milk used to be. I‘m so thrilled to have won this award, it means the world to me.”
For a full list of all the Taste of the West Award winners from 2019 and 2020, please visit www.tasteofthewest.co.uk/awards
Entries into the Taste of the West Product Awards 2020 are now closed, but you can register your interest in taking part next year by contacting Taste of the West via their website.
