Molly milk saves the day!

It’s Day 4 and the convenience issue has already reared its head. I knew I’d have to face it at some point, but I’m surprised it’s this soon.

The thing is, if there’s one thing that supermarkets really ARE, it’s convenient. Most of them are open until 8pm or 10pm Monday-Saturday, many open 24 hours and some of the smaller branches even open until late on Sundays.

In our fast-paced 21st century lives this really does matter. For those of us with full-time jobs, shopping after work is a regular punctuation in our schedules, and the feedback I’m getting from my friends and colleagues with children is that there’s no way they’d manage to avoid supermarkets and juggle their family commitments too.

I’ve had a busy week at work this week so I’ve been completely unable to do any grocery shopping. I’ve been arriving in the office before most smaller food shops open, eating lunch at my desk and leaving work later than the 5-6pm closing times.

Normally I would have popped into one of the four big supermarkets along my route to work several times but they are now out of bounds. Luckily we’ve got plenty of leftovers in the house from Christmas but we’re starting to run out of supplies.

Predictably the first thing to run dry was milk and, unless you’ve been living in a bubble for the past 12 months, you’ll know that supermarkets have come under some serious flack from the dairy industry recently, so it’s a topical place to start my drive to shop elsewhere.

Last summer saw angry farmers protesting about the low prices the big supermarket chains pay for their milk. Processing plants were blockaded as agricultural groups warned that dairy farmers could be put out of business.

Supermarkets were slammed for cutting milk prices but arguably they are only responding to consumer demand, so if you put the cheapest milk into your trolly then you are helping to create that market.

This in turn puts pressure on farmers to cut costs and increase productivity, which can lead to compromised animal welfare or the use of drugs to get higher yields.

To put my vegetarian, pro-animal rights hat on for a minute, I bet if many shoppers visited an intensive dairy farm they would be less keen to pour the end result over their cornflakes.

But fewer people these days have access to a traditional milkman so finding a non-supermarket source of milk could take a bit of research.

Luckily I have a head start, having previously lived in north Sheffield, just 10 minutes away from quirky, family-run dairy farm Our Cow Molly.

These guys have been producing milk since 1947 and keep a herd of 80 cows. And we’re talking about happy, pampered cattle here, who enjoy regular grazing and, if recent Tweets are to be believed, live music broadcasts from Radio 2 in the cowshed!

The farm holds open days and events so visitors can see exactly how they work and meet the four-legged ladies who make the milk.

And if you died and went to heaven today, the on-site ice cream parlour is probably not far off what you’d hope to be greeted with once you’d passed through the pearly gates. Forget raspberry ripple (although I’m sure they do make raspberry ripple) – I’m talking about flavours like jam roly poly, blueberry muffin and Bakewell tart.

I really need to take a trip up to the farm again soon to see the cows and maybe, if I’m allowed, take some photos for this blog. But in the meantime, Sheffield loves Our Cow Molly and loads of the city’s independent food shops now sell their ice cream and ‘Molly milk’.

Including (handily) the Street Food Chef Mexican Canteen across the road from my other half’s office.

So, ironically, my first non-supermarket grocery purchase has actually been made by my Tesco-loving boyfriend, who was dispatched to pick up a pint of Molly milk on his lunch break. At 65p it was more expensive than the 49p Tesco equivalent but not horrendously so, and for the extra 16p we at least know where the milk has come from and where our money is going.

Thanks to a cunning moooo-ve from my other half - and the efforts of a herd of Sheffield cows - our first crisis of convenience has been averted, to the delight of us and our cat Pepper (see below)!

Find out more about Our Cow Molly at www.ourcowmolly.co.uk.