When the ladies of Geddington and Newton WI met this month the farm came too.
Jane Barnes is a dairy farmer’s wife with a passion for her lifestyle and the quality of the milk her family provide from their herd of cows. Her day starts early, feeding the young calves, and finishes late when she is travelling the area presenting a lively insight into farming life to groups like our WI. The milking is managed by her son, now the farm manager with very creative ideas for keeping the land, the farm and the milking sustainable. Her mantra is quality; care of the animals, care of the land and pride in the milk which goes off to their contracted dairy to produces Leicestershire blue cheeses – and very tasty they are too.
Jane challenged us to consider the role of supermarkets and governments in controlling the price of milk, raised our awareness of the health benefits of drinking milk and reminded us that full cream milk is 95% fat free. ‘There is no such thing as a semi -skimmed cow!’
It was a delightful and thought provoking session and most of us now have some delicious blue cheese in our fridge to remind us of the hard work and commitment that goes into making it.
