Shakespeare Hills Creamery
Read on for our chat with fifth generation dairy farmer Amelia Gunningham about her family’s organic, regenerative farm on the North West coast of Tasmania.
If you’ve liked Shakespeare Hills’ pasture-raised organic eggs, which we’ve stocked for a few years now, you will LOVE their organic, 100% grass-fed milk and yoghurt.
Amelia took us through how her family is farming with purpose through regenerative and organic practices to produce these wonderful products.
Q: Tell us about you, your family and your farm
A: We are a fifth-generation farming family on the North West coast of Tasmania, on the edge of the Tarkine. My parents Matthew and Pippa Gunningham were dairy farmers in the UK but it was hard to make a living in the industry there, so they decided to emigrate around 2000. They decided on Tasmania due to its beautiful clean air, its water and soil.
Q: What do you produce?
A: Initially we were farming conventionally, but in 2017 we decided to move into organic farming. Our food journey really began then. We started producing our eggs about six years ago, but our core is beef and dairy and my older brother Henry is producing potatoes.
Q: What is special about your products?
A: We’re organic, regenerative and produce nutrient dense food. We’re not just farmers, we’re producing food for people – that’s an important distinction for us. We’ve decided to scale things back to produce food the way we want to – to nourish people.
Our cows are 100% certified grass-fed. Research show this results in a vastly different nutrient profile compared to conventional or even standard organic dairy.
We’re also running a carbon farming project where, through a QR code on our milk packaging, consumers can access a dashboard to see our carbon sequestration in real time. We feel it’s important to be transparent with our practices and how we actively regenerate the soil.
Q: What’s special about your region and why do you love it?
A: We have the cleanest air and water in the world on the North West coast. We have the red volcanic soil – it’s phenomenal. Our business is named after the Shakespeare Hills that surround and divide our farms. They’re such a beautiful and dominant feature in our landscape.
And we’re on the edge of the Tarkine region, which is really special.
Q: What’s exciting you most about your business right now?
A: Our milk and yoghurt launch, we can’t wait to bring these products to Hill Street customers!
We’re also excited about our expanding family business now that some of my siblings and I (there are five of us!) are becoming more involved. The North West coast is saturated with corporate farms so we’re trying to specialise in organic and regenerative farming within a small family-business model.
Q: Tell us more about your milk and yoghurt.
A: Our milk and yoghurt are from 100% certified grass-fed cows, and we’re currently ‘organic in conversion’, which means we’ve taken all the steps towards certified organic status – we’re only about a year away. The cows are milked out in the pasture with mobile ‘milking parlours’ which helps them remain happy, calm and all-importantly – living naturally and eating grass. The milk is then gently pasteurised in a low temperature process to preserve as much nutrition as possible from the original raw milk.
Our yoghurt is pot set and is a cream-on-top yoghurt. Our cows are New Zealand Jersey crosses and their milk has a high fat content of around 5.5 per cent but sometimes as high as 6.5 per cent. This results in such a gorgeous thick layer of cream on top of the yoghurt. You scoop it out as normal so that there is a bit of cream and a bit of yoghurt on your spoon. It’s such a treat! Our milk is cream-on-top too – we don’t do any skimmed milk products. Just invert the bottle and the cream will rise to the top and then re-invert to pour.
Q: Which is your personal favourite product in your range and why?
A: I love the yoghurt – you get to have dessert for breakfast!
Q: How did you come to work with Hill Street?
A: We started with our eggs in January 2023. Hill Street has supported us so much with our journey, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without Hill Street. We love Hill Street!
Q: Is there a recipe or a favourite way you like to use your product, which you would like to share with our customers?
A: I love a big scoop of yoghurt with the cream from the top drizzled with Blue Hills Leatherwood Honey – they’re just down the road from us and I love their honey!
Shakespeare Hills 100% Grass Fed Organic Milk is now available in all Hill Street stores. Shakespeare Hills Yoghurt will be available from late April. Shakespeare Hills Yoghurt 1kg will sell for $10.95 but we’re thrilled to be offering a two-week introductory promotion on this delicious yoghurt at just $8.95. Shakespeare Hills Milk 2L will be $10.95.