There has been a working farm at Low Sizergh for around eight hundred years - long enough that when records first show it in the 13th century, its job was supplying food for Sizergh Castle across the fields. The castle is now in the hands of the National Trust. The farm is still in the hands of the Park family, three generations of whom run the place today as tenant farmers here on the southern edge of the Lake District. We're an organic dairy farm running to 341 acres just outside Kendal in Cumbria, with a cross-bred herd of around 130 Holsteins, Scandinavian Reds and Montbéliardes, a flock of 200 Mule sheep, pastured hens and three orchards. Richard runs the farm alongside his son Matthew; his sister Alison runs the farm shop, gift gallery and café. Over fifty local people work here, including Paul Seward, who has been on the farm for nearly thirty years. The cows graze species-rich grass, herbs and legumes from late March to early November, and overwinter undercover on silage made from grass grown on our own fields. Between them they produce more than a million litres of milk a year. Most of it goes to Organic Herd, the UK's farmer-owned organic dairy cooperative, where it becomes organic butter, cheese and baby formula. The rest is sold direct, raw and unpasteurised, from the vending machine in front of our farm shop - fill a glass bottle from the machine just yards from where the cows are milked. We're one of only 124 farms in England registered with the Food Standards Agency to supply raw milk directly to consumers. Organic standards don't allow Bovaer, so it's not in our milk. If you'd like to make a day of it, the cows are milked daily between 3.30pm and 5pm and the gallery windows in our café look straight down into the milking parlour.

What do you produce?

organic raw milk, cakes, pies & tray bakes, home made ready meals & puddings

Website

www.lowsizerghbarn.co.uk

Address Summary

use LA8 8DZ on sat nav & follow brown signs. 4 miles J36 M6; 4 miles Kendal, South Lakes