Five minutes with … Nick Haddow
Bruny Island Cheese Co. is synonymous with excellence in artisan cheese-making and is a true Tasmanian success story. Nick Haddow founded Bruny Island Cheese Co. in 2003 after spending 10 years working with specialist cheese makers in different countries around the world. The dream for Nick and the Bruny Island Cheese Co. team was always to have their own dairy farm, to produce their own milk and make their cheeses even better.
In 2017 the dream was realised when they began operating a small farm at Glen Huon. The farm has recently been organically certified and uses rare breed cattle including Brown Swiss, Australian Dairy Shorthorn and Normande. Since September 2017 all Bruny Island Cheese Co. Cheese is made from the milk produced at Glen Huon Diary Co. And now we are thrilled to be able to offer Glen Huon Dairy Co. Milk on Tap at our West Hobart and Sandy Bay stores. This is a different way to buy milk; reusable glass bottles offer a sustainable means of buying milk and you receive super fresh, delicious milk straight from the farm. You’ll notice on the front of the Milk on Tap dispenser that the fat and protein content of the milk is updated with each batch that comes into the stores, reflecting the changes that occur in the milk composition throughout the seasons.
As well as running the enormously successful Bruny Island Cheese Co., Glen Huon Dairy Co., and Bruny Island Beer Co., Nick Haddow is also the inaugural chair of the Brand Tasmania statutory authority, which is charged with strengthening national and international demand for Tasmanian products and services and nurturing a Tasmanian place-brand.
We sat down with Nick for a chat and to find out more about his life:
1) In one sentence I would describe myself as …
Most of the time I could reduce it down to just one word….busy!
2) The best thing that’s happened to me this year is …
It been a pretty amazing year of achievements for us at Bruny Island Cheese & Beer and Glen Huon Dairy Co., but watching my kids grow up has been the personal highlight for me this year. Of course, they grow up every year but this year they both seem to have take giant leaps forward, become way more independent and have really grow into their personalities. It’s been beautiful to watch.
3) At Hill Street I love …
The service… from the car park attendant to the kids packing the shelves, the standard of service is exemplary. HSG is single handedly training a generation of Tasmanians about what great service look like.
4) Milk on Tap is great because …
It's a great way of connecting the consumer to their dairy farmer while at the same time reducing the number of single use plastic bottles that most families go through with regular milk bottles.
5) My guilty pleasure is …
Taramasalata. I’m addicted to the stuff.
6) My favourite weeknight home-cooked meal is …
At the moment it has to be asparagus, blanched and served with a runny egg, some grated hard cheese and some good olive oil. So fresh and simple but totally delicious.
7) If I could switch places with anyone for a week, I would choose …
Hmmmm… tough question. There’s a bunch of people I follow on Instagram that look like they have much better lives than me!... but to be honest no one really comes to mind; I have a great family, I live in an amazing place amongst a community that cares, I love my work… I'm actually pretty happy with my lot!
8) I really need to …
Read more books. I love reading novels, and I’m currently supposed to be doing research for a new book, but I don’t have a lot of spare time to read, so the pile of books next to my bed just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
9) My dream for Tasmania is …
That we work bravely together to preserve what makes Tasmania and Tasmanians so special. The world needs places like Tasmania, so we should not try to be anything other than who and what we are. If we get that right, our culture and our economy both get stronger.
