00:00 From cattle to curd, this family-run dairy farm in Sevenoaks has claimed its carbon-neutral
00:07 crown.
00:08 The Winterdale Shore cheese is completely carbon-neutrally produced. Any energy it took
00:13 to make was generated through solar panels or a wind turbine. But let's see how it tastes.
00:25 Cheese makers Robin and Karla Betts have been running Winterdale since 2006 and with such
00:31 an artisan product, they've managed to keep profit margins high and energy use low.
00:37 "We've installed quite a number of solar panels now at both the farm and here. So, and obviously
00:43 what we do here at the cheese business is completely carbon-neutral in terms of our
00:46 energy. So as soon as the milk comes into the dairy here, the whole process is completely
00:51 carbon-neutral. The farm is a little bit more difficult because it does rely on so much
00:56 energy. We all know that livestock isn't the best thing for our environment, but it's that
01:02 balance."
01:03 Once collected, milk is taken over the road, still warm, to be made into cheese. Robin
01:08 had a batch stirred, set and pressed ready.
01:11 "We've pressed that now for two days. So we turn those cheeses out, hot dip them, change
01:17 the cloth and then put them in the bigger press at the back of the dairy there for another
01:22 two days."
01:23 Then it was time for me to try and cloth wrap the chunks of cheese.
01:27 "No plastic involved, which is nice. It's biodegradable, better for the environment.
01:32 Cloth wrap it, then we've got this lovely USP where we layer it into our cave that's
01:36 running underneath the cheese barn for a whopping 10 months before we can eat it."
01:40 And this process is key to their business.
01:43 "We want to maintain that niche kind of product, so separate us from the factory made cheeses
01:48 that we all see in the supermarkets. So this relies heavily on being very traditional in
01:53 the way it's made. So behind me you can see the very traditional cheese presses."
01:59 But being carbon neutral isn't as old a practice as their processes. Robin says the new take
02:05 on farming could help producers during an energy crisis.
02:09 "Dairy farmers rely heavily on energy for obviously milking the cows and obviously feeding
02:14 the cows. The other big factor for farming in general is fertiliser costs. They're still
02:19 extortionately high. So farming in general has been hit really hard by this energy crisis.
02:25 So yeah, financially they're struggling."
02:29 Despite industry pressures, these cheesemakers keep churning on as just a small slice of
02:35 this billion pound industry.
02:38 Abbey Hook for KMTV.
