In Gippsland’s Strzelecki Ranges, Vicki and Rowan Jones are pursuing a completely organic, ethical and sustainable approach to dairying. What makes Mountain View special is that instead of buying milk, your household buys a share in the herd. It’s probably the closest thing to keeping a cow in your backyard. You can even visit. How it works is you pay a one-off set-up cost of $30 plus a $2 weekly management fee per ‘unit’, which entitles you to one litre of pure bath milk each week.
We need to put a disclaimer here that according to the food safety board, bath milk, which is unpasteurised and unhomogenised is not for human consumption.
The minimum commitment is five units, which means you’ll be getting a 1.3 gallon stainless steel bucket of the good stuff weekly, which you pick up from from designated points around Victoria.
If you don’t need and can’t give away your milk that week it simply goes back to the farm to feed the pigs – it’s the circle of life, and they like that here. The 150 Jersey and Jersey-cross cows are grass fed on a property that’s soon to be fully classified organic. Until now, the pick up points have been limited to the outer suburbs, but hopefully starting in February you'll be able to get your dairy fix in Fitzroy and Brunswick at the WholeFood Organics stores. In other good news, they’re also going to start supplying unhomogenised, low temperature pasteurised milk to cafés early in the year. Get involved.