The increasing popularity of milk vending machines’ comes from our growing interest in sustainability and freshness, together with the need to support dairy farmers by ensuring they get a fair price for their products.

Farmers put automatic coin-operated milk vending machines in their farm shop or more often in a shed that is publically accessible when the shop is closed, sometimes the milk machine is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Larger farms can set up a network of milk vending machines in convenient locations in the local area giving them a much bigger market for the output of their herd.

The milk machines provide customers with chilled, fresh, milk direct from the farm. Often the milk is non-homogenised,  organic, and sometimes even unpasturised (Raw).

There are also milkshake vending machines and egg vending machines

Milk vending machines support the local economy and smaller, farms. Buying this way also helps decrease food miles and the carbon footprint of our milk.

Farms selling milk in this way tend to be family run with smaller herds. They are likely to be organic and their cows will often spend more time grazing outdoors on grass.

Pasture-fed milk has been shown to contain higher levels of beneficial essential farry acids, including CLA, an essential fat for brain development as well as helping with weight control.

Here’s how to use a milk vending machine

If you haven’t got your own bottle or container, you can usually buy an empty one on site.

Put your money in the milk machine, most only take coins with a litre of milk costing around £1.20.

Take the lid off your container, open the machine door and hold your bottle up to the nozzle at a slight angle to avoid frothing the milk.

Press the button and wait for the milk to pour.

Put your lid back on, and if it’s a milkshake, shake until the powder has dispersed.

Click to Visit the Find a Milk and Milkshake Vending Machine Near Me map

Remember these important points about your farm fresh milk

You MUST sterilise your glass bottle before reusing it in the milk machine. Putting it in the dishwasher is ideal.

You need to refrigerate your milk at less than 4 degrees C as soon as you get home, and then keep it in the fridge. Raw milk kept in the fridge should last about 7 days, pasteurised will last more like 14 days or possibly longer. You can freeze the milk and it won’t affect the quality or taste but make sure to leave some room in the container for the frozen milk to expand.

Because the milk isn’t homogenised the cream will rise to the top if left overnight in a fridge. This cream is delicious in coffee or on cereal, or you can shake the bottle gently and mix the cream back into the milk.

What is raw Milk?

Some farms supply raw milk. This is milk that HAS NOT been treated with heat to sterilize it (pasteurisation) it also hasn’t had the fat droplets emulsified to stop the cream from separating (homogenisation). Over recent years it has become very popular as people turn away from highly processed foods.

Raw milk is how all milk used to be, before pasteurisation became standard practice. Although there are many documented health benefits to the consumption of raw milk, there are also some risks and it’s really important that you research the risks of using raw milk and decide for yourself if it’s something you want to use. By law, suppliers of raw milk MUST include a health warning on their raw milk products.

What are the benefits of raw milk?

Raw milk has superior nutrition and significant health benefits over pasteurised milk because it contains greater bioavailable nutrients, as well as a wide array of beneficial enzymes and probiotics which are known to have benefits on the immune system and gastrointestinal tract. 

Drinking raw milk may increase your resistance to allergies, asthma, respiratory infections, otitis, and eczema, though these benefits are not strongly proven.

What are the risks of drinking raw milk?

Click to Visit the Find a Milk and Milkshake Vending Machine Near me map

Commodity raw milk and dedicated raw drinking milk are very different. Factory farmed Commodity raw milk that is going to be industrially pasturised may not be produced to the same safety standard and may contain dangerous pathogens.
Raw milk that is carefully produced for direct human consumption without pasturisation is subjected to rigorous testing and standards. Evidence has shown that this type of raw milk is a low-risk food.

To  find out more about raw milk you can visit the raw milk producers association

What is Homogenised milk?

Homogenisation is a process where the milk is forced through a tiny nozzle under huge pressure. It breaks the cream molecules down into microscopic particles which means the cream won’t separate out when stored, something that is very important to the supermarkets.

The downside of the Homogenisation process is that the newly microscopic fat particles (cream) can now directly enter your bloodstream which isn’t ideal. The process also destroys many of the natural nutrients in the milk.

It’s generally accepted that Farm fresh non homogenised milk tastes better and has more health benefits then homogenised milk.

What is Pasturised milk?

Pasturised milk is milk that has been heated to a very high temperature to kill off any bacteria. This means you can store it for up to two weeks in the fridge, whereas unpasturised (raw) milk should be consumed within 7 days and ideally the same or next day.

There don’t really seem to be many downsides to pasteurising milk other than it adds another “Industrial” step to the milks production process.

Compare the production process of farm fresh raw milk versus supermarket milk

Farms that provide pasturised milk usually carry out the pasturising process on site for a total of 4 Steps!

In comparison the industrial process that provided comprises a total of 10 stages including a LOT of travelling in large diesel lorries. By the time you buy your supermarket milk it’s already at least a week old.

The benefits of buying Farm fresh milk are clear, it’s fresher, better for the health of you, your family, the cows and the planet. No wonder it’s one of the fastest growing trends in fresh food shopping.

Click to Visit the Find a Milk and Milkshake Vending Machine Near Me map

The post Milk vending machines – Everything you need to know first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post Milk vending machines – Everything you need to know appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.

So most of us aren’t going to stop eating meat anytime soon.

Is plant based meat the answer – probably not.

New companies have sprung up recently to create plant-based “Meat” that looks like, tastes like, and even bleeds like meat (they use beetroot juice for the blood). But these are mass-produced highly processed products that many don’t want to eat. Are we jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

You don’t have to go vegan or vegetarian to reduce your impact on the environment.

Here are 3 ways you can easily help out while still enjoying your meat guilt-free:

• Eat a range of meats in moderation: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Fish and even Game.
• Choose ethically reared meat, free range, grass fed and traceable from farm to fork
• Pay a little more or eat a little less: Many of us eat far too much anyway.

Here’s 5 ways meat is bad for the environment followed by 5 easy ways to mitigate your impact.

Meat is a huge contributor to the Food Miles problem (and don’t even talk about freshness)

In 2018, the number one country of origin for the United Kingdom’s lamb and mutton imports was New Zealand. A country that is 14374 nautical miles away, the journey takes around 59 days.

With new deals being sought by the UK Government to import meat and poultry from Australia (also on the other side of the World), and the USA (4632 Nautical Miles).

This problem is going to get far worse.

Meat production uses a lot of water

Rather than eating crops directly (meat and two veg anyone?) We grow some of the crops to feed the animals and then we eat the animals.

This is hugely inefficient and it’s the reason animal food production uses so much more water than plant-based. Beef uses around 15,400 liters of water per kilogram of edible meat produced, pork is close to 6,000 liters/kg and chicken takes around 4,300/kg. In comparison, vegetables use just 300 liters/kg and fruits use about 1,000 liters/kg.

Cattle produce methane, the worse greenhouse gas there is

Ruminants that eat grass, like cows and sheep are big emitters. The bacterium in their stomachs which allows them to digest grass creates a lot of methane as a by-product, and methane is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) in terms of the greenhouse effect.

Converting the environmental impact of their emissions into “CO2 equivalent” amounts: cows release about 16 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of meat, and sheep release about 13 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of meat.

Meat production contributes to deforestation

Intensive meat production is one of the biggest causes of deforestation. Once the trees have gone, chances are they’ll never come back, but they are vital to our fight against climate change because they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and only emit oxygen.

Governments around the World are announcing tree planting programmers to replace the trees cut down to rear food animals. Weird!

Intensively farmed meat creates pollution and contributes to antibiotic resistance

While agriculture in general including the production of plant-based foods is a source of pollution of the land and watercourses by fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals, the fact that 30 percent of all crops are ultimately fed to livestock means that meat takes a substantial proportion of the blame for this pollution.

Antibiotic resistance in humans is also a serious problem, and it’s thought that the over-use of antibiotics in livestock is partially responsible for this.

5 Ways to Make Meat-Eating More Ethical, Enjoyable and Sustainable.

Reduce the amount of meat you eat, and eat better meat

The simplest change you can make is cutting the amount of meat you eat, even if it’s only by a small amount. Reducetarian or flexitarian diets have become popular in recent years. These are effectively plant-based diets that incorporate some meat on occasion.

The money you save by eating less meat means you can afford higher quality, ethically raised meat that is better for your health and has far more taste than the intensively reared alternative. (And won’t be stuffed full of antibiotics).

If you switch to only eating meat on weekends, for instance, you’ll cut your food emissions by 70 percent.

Different meats create different amounts of CO2. Enjoy them all in moderation

While beef costs the environment 16 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of meat, pork is closer to 8 kg per kg of meat and chicken comes in at an impressive 4.4 kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of meat.

Fish is about as good as chicken, and mussels have a carbon footprint that’s about 20 times smaller than chicken. Nice, but not an everyday choice.

Choose pasture-raised meat from ethical suppliers

Animals raised on pastures generally have less environmental impact because it more closely mimics what happens in nature.

They forage naturally, reducing the wasteful dependence on high-energy grains and other agricultural crops, and they fertilize the soil with their manure, maintaining the natural ecosystem.

They’re much less likely to be treated with antibiotics, and they experience far less stress.

Pasture-raised meat is the best choice when it comes to the environment, but also offers better animal welfare, provided you take the time to choose a farmer who treats their livestock well.

Choose locally-fed or grass-fed meat

If you can’t find pasture-raised meat, you can still drastically reduce the environmental impact of your meat-eating by choosing meat from farms that grass-feed their livestock.

For cows, in particular, Grain-based feed is very inefficient: they don’t absorb most of the nutrients in the grains, and it’s likely the feed will have been shipped a long distance to the farm.

Choosing meat either fed on locally-produced crops or grass-fed is by far the best approach for the environment.

Reduce your food waste

This really is a no-brainer. Food is one of our biggest monthly expenses and yet up to a third of all food produced ends up on landfills creating a massive 4.4 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year.

The food that we throw away without providing nutrition or energy to your family, ends up rotting on a landfill and producing methane, the Worse greenhouse gas there is.

The bottom line is that Meat is a key part of our diet, something we are designed to eat, and something to be enjoyed, guilt-free so long as we make the right ethical choices.

The post An Ethical and Sustainable Guide to Eating Meat first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post An Ethical and Sustainable Guide to Eating Meat appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.

Farm shops have become really popular in recent years, boosted by an increasingly food-savvy and environmentally aware public, farmers looking to improve their profits and reconnect with the consumer, and of course the odd food scare.

After the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic left many supermarket shelves bare, and with home delivery slots hard to come by, many people are now opting for their local farm shop as a more relaxed, socially acceptable way of buying fresh food.

People are asking more questions about where their food comes from, with a notable preference for British food. There’s also a huge increase in the number of people who want their food to be ethically raised and free from chemicals and antibiotics.

Although we rarely hear the phrase “food Miles” anymore, “Locally produced” is increasingly important to many people. How can it make sense to ship lamb from New Zealand and Australia, when we can raise sheep in the UK?

The most successful farm shops at the moment are those offering a ‘full basket shop’, which includes everything you need for a weekly shop, realistically though, most of us rely on the supermarkets for our essentials and buy our treats from the farm shops.

The farm shops that have done best are the ones that have introduced online shopping.

In fact we have found that of the many farm shops that have shut their doors in the last 3 years not a single one had an online offering.

So, people want to buy online, that’s not news. But they don’t always expect a full eCommerce site. Many farm shops have introduced a hybrid system where  customers can fill out their shopping list online, email or make phone call and staff will pick it and pack the order ready to “Click and collect” in the car park.

This is particularly true of farms producing Christmas turkeys, geese, and other seasonal items.

The UK Government has made taxpayer money available for farmers to connect directly to their customers, to set up direct sales operations, and to set up online stores.

This is great news for all of us and we should make the most of this new opportunity to support British farmers and eat ourselves and our plant healthier.

The post Farm Shops are More Popular than Ever with People Who Care About Themselves, Their Family and the Environment first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post Farm Shops are More Popular than Ever with People Who Care About Themselves, Their Family and the Environment appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.

There’s been a huge growth in demand for fresh fish and shellfish bought direct from the source.

Nothing is LESS suitable than seafood for buying in a supermarket, which can be up to 10 days old by the time you eat it.

In fact a BBC investigation into supermarkets a few years ago found that some of the “fresh” fish on sale was up to 20 days old and nearly a third may even be off. They did add that the 20 days was at the “extreme” end of the spectrum. But even so!

Ideally whole fish should be eaten within 36-48 hours of capture while filleted fish can stay fresh for up to 4 days.

Fresh fish has always been popular in the UK but was traditionally eaten more often in restaurants, as most of us aren’t sure how to cook it properly. The COVID pandemic changed all this by shutting down the restaurants and forcing us to cook our fish at home

Another reason for the increased interest in buying fresh fish is that people are more interested in healthier eating. A recent survey found that 72% of frequent seafood consumers are putting more effort into making healthy, sustainable and nutritious choices since the pandemic.

Seafood is a major source of healthful omega-3 fats and is also rich in nutrients such as vitamin D and selenium, high in protein, and low in saturated fat.

The industry has responded to these changing circumstances by selling their fish and shellfish direct to the customer and providing us with hints, tips and recipes, as well as nutritional and sustainability information.

It’s easy to buy direct from UK based coastal or day boat fishers (or from specialist regional fishmongers or Cooperatives) who return with their catch the same day.

They’ve followed the lead of farmers by preparing the fish for you so it’s ready to cook or freeze on delivery, you don’t need to worry about doing your own prep.

They’ll send it direct to your door overnight, vacuum-packed or sealed in trays. The fish is protected by a lined insulated polystyrene box surrounded with chilled gel-packs to keep it cool and in perfect condition.

With so much wonderful seafood available in the UK and many cooking resources online, on TV, and in print there’s no reason to miss out on this fantastic food anymore.

The post Fresh Seafood Direct from the Sea first appeared on Easy Farm Shop.

The post Fresh Seafood Direct from the Sea appeared first on Easy Farm Shop.