Coffee shop milks link with dairy
NIKI TENNANT
A Burnside coffee shop is proving it’s the cream of the crop after a young mum who grew up locally introduced it to a new concept in organic milk produced by the cows on her family’s farm.
Ashlea Russell, a former pupil of Cathkin High, now lives on the dairy farm that belongs to her partner’s family in Mauchline, Ayrshire.
Five years ago, the worst milk price collapse in generations prompted Ashlea’s partner, Bryce Cunningham, to come up with a sustainable new direction for his family’s farm, Mossgiel.
He radically changed three generations of farming practices to become organic, ended their supply contracts with dairy giants, and appealed to the local community for its support in his family’s new vision of “a different way to dairy”.
Unique to the Scottish dairy scene, Mossgiel’s “gold standard” milk comes only from cattle the family affectionately call the Mossgiel Girls.
Mossgiel offers Scotland’s only milk from cows which keep their calves beside them until weaning, eat only grass, and the males get to keep their horns.
Every pint of the award-winning milk comes in zero-waste traditional glass bottles, which are stamped with the face of Robert Burns, who once farmed the land on which Mossgiel cows now graze.
And thanks to Ashlea, those bottles can now be refilled from one of Scotland’s only three organic milk vending machines located in the popular Burnside cafe Jingers, which recently opened next to the flat in which she once lived.
“I lived in a tenement on Burnside Main Street for five years,” explained Ashlea.
“So, I was very excited to introduce some shops in the area to Mossgiel milk, as I felt a lot of people would really appreciate the quality and the story behind it.”
When Jingers’ owner Jane Hynes first introduced Mossgiel milk to her customers, they told her they loved the unique taste.
As demand increased, Jane decided to install a Mossgiel milk dispenser to give her customers ice-cold, fresh, full-cream or semiskimmed milk on tap.
A pint of the white stuff from the dispenser costs £1.50, including a glass bottle, and a refill is £1.35.
“One of the reasons I went to Mossgiel is their commitment to the ethical side of farming,” explained Jane.
“It is an open farm, and they keep the calves with the mums, which means the mums are under less stress.”
Jingers, which now offers veg boxes and fruit baskets for home delivery in the Burnside area, is embracing Bryce and Ashlea’s enthusiasm for their organic milk.
Jane is currently working on creating natural fruit syrups, allowing children to flavour their organic milk by pouring from the cafe’s chilled dispenser into refillable glass bottles.
If the milk’s popularity in Burnside is anything to go by, sustainable family dairy farming is the way forward.
Happily, Ashlea and Bryce are expecting their first child in three weeks’ time – a sibling for her sons Harris, 7, and Murray, 4, and his boy, Arran, aged five.
“We will soon have four little farmers running around Mossgiel,” said Ashlea.
“So, we’ll be busier than ever!”