From grass to glass ... help yourself to a bottle of milk

A Meath farming family are doing their bit for the environment, as they have begun to sell their own pasteurised milk on their farm.

Brothers Conor and Mark McGrane of Walterstown have opened McGrane's Milk Barn where the public can buy fresh pasteurised milk from a dispenser in a special custom built barn.

Conor explains that the idea of cutting down food miles is a great incentive for customers.

“It is visual. By the time the cows are milked, some of their milk is already being pasteurised and ready to dispense. These cows sometimes are in the paddocks around the barn which is a lovely vision - from grass to glass.”

Conor and Mark's father, Michael, set up the family farm in Walterstown in 1973, starting with a handful of cows milked by hand.

Michael is still an integral part of daily farming on this farm and can be found in the yard from 5am most mornings! Conor and Mark were brought up on the farm and after they attended agricultural college, they returned to the homestead.

Mark says the idea for the milk barn had been in their heads for a number of years.

“Only after the lock-down hit in March 2020 did we feel that perhaps it might be the right time to start this. We are lucky to live in an area with multiple egg and potato vending machines and we found many people who were walking the roads, would stop and ask if we'd ever be able to sell milk direct. That first lockdown made a lot of people reassess much of their daily lives.

“The idea of our self-service barn is that once you buy your bottle initially you bring it back on each return visit and just fill your milk back up. We have cleaning instructions available in the barn for customers to take away with them - and they can be washed by hand, or by dishwasher.

“It has been lovely to see, even in our first few days of opening, the bottles being returned for more milk.”

The brothers and their wives, Eimear and Amanda, say they have had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely customers, from the locality and further afield in the past few days since opening.

“We've been told many stories of years gone by, with the memories of the glass bottles of milk in childhood for many people ,” says Conor.

“What really makes this barn is the self-service idea. Children and adults alike can dispense their own milk and flavour it if they like and this is very important.”

The McGrane's purchased the machines from Unison Engineering in Limerick and have been their first customers in Ireland for their glass bottle machine, milk vending machine and pasteurisation unit.

The milk is pasteurised on the farm arrives at the barn in the sealed pasteurisation container. This container is placed within the vending machine ready to be dispensed.

As you enter the barn, you initially will buy a glass bottle in the glass bottle vending machine. One litre bottles are priced at €3.50 and 500ml bottles are priced at €2.50.

Customers then proceed to the milk vending machine and select the quantity for dispensing.

After each dispense, the machine self-sterilises, ready for its next customer. There are also some flavoured syrups available that you can add to your bottle.

A litre of milk costs €1.50 and 500ml costs €1 so its similar pricing to the shops.

The milk is pasteurised to ensure it is safe but it is not homogenised, so the cream rises naturally to the top.

Conor and Mark tried to keep all the work carried out in the creation of their pasteurisation room and the milk barn as local as possible, using local contractors and professionals.

McGranes also pay tribute to the employees at the family farm enterprise.

Conor and Eimear have four children – Lucy, Evie, Harry, and Nancy, who is just nine weeks old. Mark and Amanda have two children – Sadie and Jack.

These children can be found running in the fields on summer evenings and feeding the calves with their dads on occasion and can look forward to a sustainable future for the family farm and themselves.