Aiden Direen’s 2Cow Dairy lies just outside Cygnet in the Huon Valley, the re-established site of the former Cygnet Dairy. ’2Cow’ refers to the two breeds of dairy cattle used in the production of this delicious milk we use for all our cooking and coffee at Ethos.

On our recent trip down, we were fortunate enough to meet the long eye lashed and caramel coloured jersey and classic black and white Friesian cows that make up Aiden’s milking herd. Jersey milk is amongst the richest in the world and the Friesian milk allows the product to be more versatile once it gets to Ethos.

Unlike most supermarket milk the 2Cow milk is 100% milk and is pasteurized but not homogenized which means if you’re lucky enough to be the first to open the bottle you get a big blob of sweet cream on your corn flakes as it floats to the surface as the milk settles. (I remember hearing about what a treat it was for my parents when they were children but hadn’t experienced it myself until we got the 2Cow in at Ethos).

 Aiden ran us through the milking and filtration process before showing us the refrigerated vat of milk he had extracted from his cattle that morning. Before the mixing arm was turned on thick layer of golden cream could be seen floating on its surface.

It was at this time that Aiden explained that we were unable to taste the milk at this stage because it was yet to be pasteurized at his Coal River Valley bottling facility. The Dairy industry is regulated to a point where milk directly out of the cow’s udder cannot even be given away which we think is sad as it is not only totally delicious but has huge health benefits. Hopefully one day these laws can be relaxed with a bit of public lobbying and support for those dairy farmers aiming for a return to the product’s natural state and integrity.

We drove up to meet his herd grazing at the top of a hill over looking the Huon Valley and its carpet of apple orchards, now in fruit. The 40 cattle seemed as curious about us as we were about them before they went back to the serious business of grazing and milk production while the Jersey bull bellowed at us from the neighboring paddock.

Aiden told us that he hopes to be producing a skim milk and as a byproduct Jersey cream in his own onsite facility by the end of this year and we can’t wait! Real milk produced by beautiful healthy cattle… we think you can’t do better.