Local Food Heroes - Stephen Wheeler speaks to Wyndham Weeks
REAL butter may well be one of life’s more indulgent little luxuries – but its journey from farm to plate wouldn’t be possible without the artisan skills honed to perfection by generations of butter makers.
This week my Gloucestershire Food Heroes are the Weeks family, who began dairy farming at Netherend, near Lydney, in 1936. During those early years, business owner Wyndham Weeks’ parents used to hand-churn the butter to take out on their local milk delivery round, but in 1982 the family’s dairy herd and milking parlour was sold to a large competitor.
Ironically, the butter making side of thebusiness was of no interest to the buyer, so the Weeks family just carried on churning.Today, Netherend Farm produces two tonnes of butter a week, from 1,000 gallons of locally farmed cream. Small, independent butter makers are a rare breed these days – Netherend is the only commercially sized producer in Gloucestershire with organic butter accounting for 15 per cent of production.
Wyndham’s customers are also an exclusive bunch: Claridges Hotel, The Orient Express, Gordon Ramsay, Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, first class passengers on Japan Airlines, the Hairy Bikers and Mise en Place are all amongst the Netherend appreciation society.
Netherend uses only the best raw materials – namely natural or ‘sweet’ cream from Cotswold milk, rather than the by-products of cheese manufacture used by larger makers. Real butter is yellower in the summer, due to the grass in the cows’ diet, and whiter in the winter, when the herds are fed more hay.
The trend towards locally produced, high quality food, has seen business double in five years. Netherend Farm is thriving – this Gloucestershire Food Hero simply lets the taste of his product spread the good news.
To see the actual article, click here
31st October 2009
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