January newsletter

Wishing you all a very belated happy New Year! This month's newsletter is rather late... On the farm it always feels like there’s something more important to do than sit at a desk, even if it has been raining for the past month. Turns out writing a monthly newsletter is harder than I thought!

Dorset Dairy News

We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of our latest product, Kefir. It looks like Mixed Berry is going to be the firm favourite, it certainly is at home. We should be receiving our new labels this month so keep an eye out for them.

We've been making the most of the few dry spells we've enjoyed to push on with our tree planting programme, which involves clearing a lot of dead ash and elm trees first. Thankfully the Christmas period provided us with plenty of family labour.

We usually use this quiet time of year to reach out to new stockists so, if your favourite independent retailer might be a good fit for our products, do let us know!

Farm Yard Update

All our cows have now calved! Over the past few years, we have moved our herd towards a 6-month block calving pattern (from June until December) when previously we would calve all year round. The main benefit of this system is condensing the workload into blocks, which help maintain focus and gives us a break from some other jobs as well. We feel it suits our cows and farm set up. Calving in the autumn means that we can look after them better whilst they’re in the barn over winter and then make more use of the lush grass at spring turnout.

The latest piece of machinery to come out of the farm workshop is a sand rake, to level the cow cubicle beds – like the machines you see dragged around the beaches in the evenings (see picture below). This is a classic farm 'Scrapheap Challenge', built entirely from upcycled materials sourced from old farm machinery (with the exception of some oil pipes).

We have certainly paid the price for the dry, hot summer of 2022! December and January so far have produced both some of the coldest and wettest spells of weather for many years. The fields now are completely saturated, let’s hope that means we get some better weather in March and April to get the grass growing!

Cow of the Month

‘Bella’

This is our dairyman Louis’ favourite cow. I’m not entirely sure why... she can be feisty and has been known to kick in the milking parlour. She’s currently on her second lactation, averaging 37L of milk a day at 4.42% butterfat and 3.31% protein.

Recipe of the month - Chicken Korma

Difficulty - farmer's wife

Yoghurt features heavily in a lot of Indian cuisine with Chicken Korma being the perfect example. This is my go-to recipe.

Ingredients

2 onions - finely chopped

50g of butter - a good knob

400g of chicken - diced

1 tbsp rape seed oil - ideally something local :)

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp of ground fresh ginger

1 tsp of ground cumin

1 tsp of gram masala

1 tsp of turmeric

1 tsp of mild chilli powder

½ tsp of ground black pepper

5 cardamom pods - ground down and husks removed

100ml of real milk - a good glug

200 ml of coconut milk

200g of whole milk strained yoghurt

Spoonful of cultured cream - if extra cream is your thing

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Gently heat the butter in a large frying pan then add the chopped onions – don’t let them go brown!

After 5 minutes of cooking add the garlic and ginger then cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Tip contents of frying pan into a food blender.

Reheat frying pan adding the rape seed oil then the diced chicken stirring to not let it stick and burn on. Fry all sides of chicken, this should take about 5 – 8 minutes.

Whilst this is happening, add the spices and milk into the blender and blend all together into a smooth sauce. Once blended tip into a saucepan and bring to a simmer adding the coconut milk and chicken.

Let this simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally to
prevent a skin forming, add salt to taste.

Remove from heat for 1 minute before stirring in the whole milk strained yoghurt – if added whilst still heating it could cause the yoghurt to curdle – look grainy in the sauce. I also like to add a spoonful of cultured cream for an extra creamy sauce.

Serve with basmati rice.

PS.. the more tumeric you add yellower it will be and the more likely it is going to stain anything it lands on ;)

We hope you have enjoyed the third edition of our monthly newsletter, please email any feedback to hello@thedorsetdairyco.com and forward on to anyone you think might find this interesting.

Dan & Alex