Country Valley processes milk, yoghurt and cream on the Fairley family farm in Picton, 90 kms from Manly. In 2018 the Manly Food Co-op introduced Country Valley bulk milk into the store. The milk arrives into the Co-op in re-usable metal churns and is available for customers to fill their own jars and bottles. Empty churns are returned to Country Valley to re-fill for the next order.
Country Valley milk is delivered to the Co-op fresh from the farm each Tuesday and Saturday. Use by dates are shown on each churn. Churns can be found in the right hand side fridge at the back of the shop. If a churn is empty when you try to fill your churn, please ask staff for assistance 🙂
Why buy in bulk?
Sales of Country Valley milk from the Manly Food Co-op save about 10,000 plastic bottles per year. That’s a lot of plastic not entering landfill, not to mention the knowledge that your milk comes from a sustainable farm, run with love and passion by John and Sally Fairley.
A message from Country Valley
John and Sally Fairley have been operating the dairy since 2001, and the farm has been in the family since 1958. John is passionate about producing a sustainable and quality product. In John’s own words:
“Our farm operates under Regenerative principles with one light spray of Weedicide a year and no chemical fertilsers. We focus on carbon farming principles with the soil, building the carbon to allow worms and biota to return to make its own fertiliser. It also takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to retain the carbon in the soil and return the oxygen to the air. If all farms practiced these principle the CO2 in the atmosphere would reduce. The soil then grows better pasture and the cows are healthier and produce a more nutritious milk.
We need to keep an eye on the changing climate though. In 2016 we had record floods followed by a record drought. This culminated in the worst bushfires in the country but we have had wonderful seasons since March 2020, thankfully. With the onset of Covid and the closing of all our coffee shops and restaurants in March it was probably the fifth time since I started Country Valley that I wondered ‘why am I doing this?’ I can do what I do in my valley but we need action worldwide to stop the intensity of the climate.
Meanwhile through all this we continue to produce an ethical nutritious product for the enjoyment of the Manly people, and others.”
The Manly Co-op is proud to provide a sustainable dairy option to customers that reduces waste. You can visit the Country Valley website here.