Peter visited Chepstow’s family-run Brookes Wye Valley Dairy to hear about their production of ice cream and cheese whilst reducing their carbon footprint with solar power and recyclable packaging.
In 1990, owners Robert and Irene Brooke took the decision to diversify their dairy farm and herd of pedigree jersey cows, expanding their traditional dairy business for modern markets by producing quality ice cream and, in 2019, soft cheese.
No stranger to the spotlight, their cheese Angiddy appeared on the BBC’s Great British Bakeoff in 2019, with the farm featuring on a 2020 episode of Countryfile as a farm diversification success story.
On visiting the farm, Peter said:
“Brookes Dairy is an excellent example of how Welsh farms are able to align business aims with green initiatives which are good for both the economy and our local environment.”
“Not only are they producing some of the finest cheese and ice cream in Wales – they are a committed local employer.”
“I look forward to seeing their plans to reduce production waste, alongside expanding their cheese range!”
Brookes Dairy’s Hannah stated that:
“It was great to have Peter visit our farm and dairy, we enjoyed showing him what we do as we’re so passionate about our cows and the products that we make. Farming and food production is very important to Wales and we appreciate Peter’s support on this.
Before the visit we’d just found out that we had been shortlisted as a finalist in the ‘Farm to Fork’ category in the Welsh Food & Drink Awards so it was great to be able to share that news with Peter.”
